How to disable default highlighting in Tableau

Today we will learn how to disable default highlighting in Tableau, because when a mark is selected, that mark will be highlighted, and all the other marks will be greyed out. Sometimes this can be useful, but other times this effect can be useless and we can even get annoyed by it. For a better user experience, the creation of a calculated field will be the solution.

Let’s see how this can be done in our newest #skillpill video.

Here is the entire process in your data analytics favourite platform, Tableau, step by step:

Step 1: Connect to data

→In Tableau Desktop, connect to Superstore sample data provided by Tableau.

Step 2: Create the visualization

→For this use case, you can create a bar chart with Customer Name on Rows and Sum(Sales) on columns.

→You will observe that when a customer is selected, his bar will be highlighted and all other bars will be greyed out.

→To disable this effect you can create one simple calculation named True, and type True in the formula.

→Add True field on the Detail marks card.

→Create a worksheet action. Go to Worksheet >>Actions, create a Highlight Action, set Target Highlighting to Selected Fields and check your True Now the highlight is disabled.

→To make this action to work on the dashboard, set the action from your Dashboard.

Why does all the above work?

When you have added the field True on the detail marks card, you’ve associated every row/customer with the same True value, which is everything. So, this field helped you to highlight every row on the worksheet, and no row was left to be greyed out.

A skillpill created by Sergiu Rotaru – Data Analyst at btProvider.

About btProvider:

We hold all possible technical and sales certifications for all products: Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public, Tableau Server, Tableau Prep, Tableau Data Management.

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