How to Format Tooltip in Tableau

A well-designed Tableau visualization tells a story, but a customized tooltip provides the rich footnotes that make that story compelling. Default tooltips are functional, but learning how to format them unlocks a deeper layer of interactivity and context for your audience. This guide will walk you through everything from basic text formatting to embedding entire charts directly into your tooltips, giving you the skills to turn standard dashboards into dynamic analytical tools.

What is a Tableau Tooltip?

In Tableau, a tooltip is a small pop-up box that appears when you hover your mouse over a specific mark (like a bar, a point on a line, or a section of a map) in your visualization. By default, it displays the key dimensions and measures associated with that specific data point. For example, if you have a bar chart showing sales by region, hovering over the "West" region's bar would bring up a tooltip that likely says "Region: West" and "Sales: $500,000".

Think of it as on-demand detail. Instead of cluttering your main chart with tons of labels, you can pack supplemental information into the tooltip, which only appears when a user expresses a direct interest in a specific mark. It’s an essential feature for creating clean, focused, yet deeply informative dashboards.

How to Access the Tooltip Editor in Tableau

Editing your tooltip is a straightforward process. All the controls are nested within the Marks card, which is the central hub for controlling the visual appearance of your data.

Here’s how to get there:

1. Open your worksheet in Tableau Desktop.
2. Look for the Marks card, typically located to the left of your visualization view.
3. On the Marks card, you'll see a small button labeled "Tooltip." Click on it.

Clicking this button opens the "Edit Tooltip" dialog box. This is your command center for formatting. Inside, you'll see a text editor with some default fields Tableau has automatically included. You'll also notice a toolbar at the top for basic text styling and an "Insert" button in the top right, which will become your best friend for adding dynamic data.

Basic Text Formatting and Styling

The simplest way to improve your tooltips is to move beyond the default plaintext and add some structure and style. The tooltip editor functions like a basic rich-text editor, giving you familiar controls to enhance readability.

Rewriting for Clarity

The first step is to make the text more human-friendly. Instead of just listing the field name and its value (e.g., Category: Office Supplies), you can write a full sentence that provides context. This makes the tooltip feel more like a conversation and less like a database entry.

For example, change the default: State: California SUM(Sales): $457,687

To something more descriptive: The state of California generated a total sales of $457,687.

You can achieve this by simply typing your text directly into the editor and using the dynamic field tags (like <,State> and <SUM(Sales)>) as placeholders.

Using Bolding, Color, and Font Size

Use the formatting toolbar to establish a visual hierarchy within the tooltip. Just like on a webpage, you want the most important information to stand out.

• Bold: Make dynamic values or key metrics bold to draw the eye. For example, "Total Sales: $457,687".
• Color: Use color sparingly but effectively. You could color profit values green if they are positive and red if they are negative (this would require a calculated field, which we'll touch on later).
• Size: Increase the font size for the primary metric to make it the clear focal point of the tooltip.

Making Your Tooltips Dynamic with Data Fields

The real power of Tableau tooltips comes from their ability to display data dynamically for each mark. You can include not only the data powering your main view but also supplemental information that adds valuable context.

Using the 'Insert' Button

The "Insert" button at the top-right of the Edit Tooltip window is how you add references to your data fields. When you click it, you’ll see a list of all the fields currently active in your worksheet (i.e., on Rows, Columns, Color, Detail, etc.). Clicking a field will insert its corresponding tag, like <AGG(Profit Ratio)>, into the editor.

Adding Fields Just for the Tooltip

What if you want to show a metric in the tooltip that isn't part of the main visualization? For instance, your bar chart might show Sales by Sub-Category, but you also want the tooltip to display the Quantity sold and the Profit for each sub-category. This is easily done:

1. Find the desired field(s) in your Data pane on the left (e.g., 'Quantity' and 'Profit').
2. Click and drag each field directly onto the Tooltip tile on the Marks card.
3. The field will now appear with an icon next to it on the Marks card, and more importantly, it will be available in the "Insert" menu of the Edit Tooltip window.

Now, even though 'Quantity' and 'Profit' aren't displayed on your actual bar chart, their values will be populated in the tooltip when you hover over a specific sub-category. This technique is fundamental for creating rich, informative tooltips without overloading the on-screen visual.

Advanced Tooltip Feature: Viz in Tooltip

One of Tableau's most impressive features is "Viz in Tooltip." This allows you to embed a completely separate visualization (from another worksheet) directly inside the tooltip of your main chart. When you hover over a mark, a mini-chart appears, already filtered for that specific data point.

This is incredibly powerful for layered analysis. A user can see an overview on the main dashboard and then dive into detailed trends for a specific category without ever leaving the initial view.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Viz in Tooltip

Let's walk through a common example: a main map showing sales by state, with a tooltip that shows a monthly sales trend line chart for the selected state.

1. Create Your Main Visualization

First, build your primary view. Put the State dimension on Detail, use a generated Latitude/Longitude on Rows/Columns to create a map, and put SUM(Sales) on Color. You now have a choropleth map of the U.S.

2. Create Your Tooltip Visualization

In a new worksheet, build the viz you want to embed. Let's call this worksheet "Sales Trend." Put Order Date (set to continuous Month) on Columns and SUM(Sales) on Rows. You should now have a simple line chart showing sales over time.

3. Insert the Sheet Into Your Tooltip

Go back to your main Map worksheet.

• Click on the Tooltip button on the Marks card.
• In the editor, place your cursor where you want the visualization to appear.
• Click the "Insert" button in the top right and select Sheets > Sales Trend.

Tableau will automatically insert a special piece of code that looks like this: <,Sheet name="Sales Trend" maxwidth="300" maxheight="300" filter="&lt,All Fields&gt,"

4. Understanding and Customizing the Code

• name="Sales Trend": Tells Tableau which worksheet to embed.
• maxwidth/maxheight: Controls the size of the embedded viz in pixels. You can adjust these numbers to fit your design.
• filter="&lt,All Fields&gt,": This is the most crucial part. It tells Tableau to filter the "Sales Trend" worksheet based on all the dimensions of the mark you are hovering over on the map (in this case, the State). So, when you hover over Colorado, the line chart in the tooltip will only show sales data for Colorado.

That's it! When you return to your map and hover over a state, you will see your formatted text along with a dynamic line chart showing that state's unique sales trend.

Best Practices for Effective Tooltips

Just because you can put a lot of information in a tooltip doesn't always mean you should. A well-designed tooltip is scannable, relevant, and adds value without overwhelming the user.

• Keep it Clean and Focused: Don't cram every possible field into the tooltip. Ask yourself: "What secondary piece of information will help my audience make a better decision or understand this data point more fully?" Start there.
• Use Reader-Friendly Language: Rephrase technical field names. AGG(Profit Ratio) should become "Profit Ratio." COUNTD(Order ID) can be simplified to "Number of Orders." Write sentences.
• Guide the User's Eye: Use formatting (bolding, font size) to highlight the single most important metric in the tooltip. This helps users quickly grasp the key takeaway.
• Consider End-User Actions: Tableau tooltips allow you to disable selection, aggregation, and command buttons in the options section below the main editor. Uncheck these options to deliver a cleaner, view-only experience for your final audience.
• Test, Test, Test: View your dashboard on different screen sizes to make sure your tooltips don't run off the page or feel too cramped.

Final Thoughts

Mastering tooltip formatting in Tableau is a simple change that dramatically elevates the quality and usability of your dashboards. By transforming them from simple data readouts into rich, interactive layers of context, you empower your users to explore data and uncover insights on their own terms, turning a static report into a dynamic analytical conversation.

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