How to Link Sheets in Tableau Dashboard

Building individual charts in Tableau is one thing, but making them work together to tell a story is what separates a good dashboard from a great one. If your users are just looking at a static collection of graphs, they're missing out on the power of interactive analysis. This guide will walk you through exactly how to link sheets within a Tableau dashboard, turning it into a dynamic tool that allows users to explore your data on their own terms.

Why Should You Link Sheets in a Tableau Dashboard?

Linking sheets - also known as creating dashboard actions - is the primary way to add interactivity to your Tableau dashboards. Instead of presenting a collection of disconnected visualizations, you create a cohesive and guided analytical experience. When you click on a data point in one sheet (like a state on a map), other sheets on the dashboard can automatically update to show data relevant only to that selection (like sales figures for that specific state).

Here are the three main benefits of this approach:

• Guided Analytics: It allows you to create a "drill-down" path for your users. They can start with a high-level overview (e.g., total sales by region) and click to see more detailed information (e.g., sales by product category within that region), all within the same view. This makes complex data much more approachable.
• Contextual Insights: By linking sheets, you provide immediate context. Seeing how one data point affects multiple other metrics simultaneously is more powerful than analyzing each chart in isolation. It helps users discover relationships and patterns they might have otherwise missed.
• Efficient Use of Space: You can present a significant amount of information without cluttering your dashboard. A detailed breakdown can be hidden until the user interacts with a summary chart, keeping the main view clean and focused on the most important key performance indicators (KPIs).

Understanding the Core Concept: Dashboard Actions

The entire mechanism for linking worksheets in Tableau is built around something called Dashboard Actions. An action is a user-initiated event (like a click, hover, or menu selection) on a specific worksheet that triggers a change or event on another worksheet, dashboard, or even a URL.

While there are several types of actions, the one we'll focus on for linking sheets is the Filter Action. A Filter Action takes the data from a selected mark (or multiple marks) in a "source" sheet and uses it to filter the data displayed in one or more "target" sheets.

To put it simply:

• Source Sheet(s): This is the worksheet that initiates the action. It's the chart your user will click on.
• Target Sheet(s): This is the worksheet that reacts to the action. It's the chart that gets filtered based on what was clicked in the source sheet.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Link Two Sheets with a Filter Action

Let's walk through a classic example: creating a dashboard with a map of the United States showing sales by state, and a bar chart showing sales by product category. Our goal is to make it so that when a user clicks on a state in the map, the bar chart updates to show only the sales by category for that specific state.

Step 1: Build Your Worksheets

Before you can link anything, you need something to link. First, create your individual worksheets in Tableau.

1. The "Source" Sheet (Our Map):
2. The "Target" Sheet (Our Bar Chart):

At this point, you should have two separate worksheets, one showing a map and one showing a simple bar chart. They aren't yet connected in any way.

Step 2: Assemble Your Dashboard

Now, let's bring these two sheets together onto a single dashboard canvas.

• Click the New Dashboard icon at the bottom of the Tableau window.
• From the Sheets list on the left pane, drag and drop both "Sales by State Map" and "Sales by Category" onto the dashboard canvas. Arrange them however you like, perhaps with the map at the top and the bar chart below it.

Step 3: Create the Dashboard Action

This is where we connect the dots and bring the interactivity to life. With your dashboard open:

1. Navigate to the top menu and click Dashboard > Actions.... A new dialog box will appear.
2. In the Actions dialog box, click the Add Action > button and select Filter.... This will open the configuration window for your filter action.

Step 4: Configure the Filter Action

This configuration window is the command center for your interactive link. Let's break down each section carefully.

1. Name Give your action a descriptive name. This is crucial when you have multiple actions on one dashboard. Let's name ours "Filter Category by State Selection".

2. Source Sheets This section tells Tableau which sheet(s) will trigger the action. In our case, the user will be clicking on the map.

• Uncheck the "Sales by Category" sheet.
• Ensure that only the "Sales by State Map" sheet is selected.

3. Run action on: This determines how the user will trigger the action. You have three choices:

• Hover: The action runs when the user simply moves their mouse over a mark. This can be reactive but sometimes feels too busy.
• Select: The action runs when the user clicks a mark. This is the most common and intuitive option. Let's choose this one.
• Menu: The action runs when the user right-clicks a mark and selects an option from a context menu. This is best for less common or secondary actions.

4. Target Sheets This section tells Tableau which sheet(s) will be affected by the action. We want our bar chart to be filtered.

• Uncheck "Sales by State Map".
• Ensure that only the "Sales by Category" sheet is selected.

5. Clearing the selection will: This is a very important setting that controls what happens after the user clicks away from their selection in the source sheet.

• Show all values: This is the most popular choice. When the user deselects the mark (e.g., by clicking on empty space), the target sheet reverts to showing all of its data.
• Exclude all values: When deselected, the target sheet will become blank until a new selection is made in the source sheet.
• Leave the filter: When deselected, the target sheet remains filtered by the last selection made.

For our dashboard, select "Show all values" so the bar chart defaults back to showing total sales by category when no state is selected.

6. Target Filters This controls which fields are used for the filter. "All Fields" means that if there are any fields in common between the source and target sheets (like Region, Country, etc.), they'll all be used in the filter context. "Selected Fields" allows you to choose exactly which field connections to use. For our simple use case, "All Fields" works perfectly fine.

Step 5: Test Your Action

• Click OK to close the Filter Action window, and OK again to close the Actions window.

Now, go back to your dashboard and test it out! Click on any state in the map. You should see the "Sales by Category" bar chart instantly update to show only the figures for the state you selected. Click on an empty part of the map, and the bar chart should return to showing the total sales for all states. Congratulations, you've successfully linked your first sheets!

Bonus Tip: The "Use as Filter" Shortcut

For simple filter actions like the one we just built, Tableau offers a fantastic shortcut.

1. Select the source sheet on your dashboard (in our case, the "Sales by State Map" view).
2. You'll see a small border appear around it with a few icons in the top right corner.
3. Click the icon that looks like a funnel, labeled "Use as Filter".

That's it! Tableau will automatically create a default "Select" filter action that targets all other sheets on the dashboard. This is a huge time-saver for quick and simple connections. However, by learning how to configure actions manually through the Dashboard > Actions... menu, you have much more granular control over the user experience.

Final Thoughts

You've now learned how to use Dashboard Actions to link worksheets, transforming a static report into an interactive and insightful analytical tool. By mastering this fundamental Tableau skill, you can guide your users through your data, reveal deeper insights, and enable them to answer their own questions without needing to build new reports.

While mastering the intricacies of tools like Tableau is a powerful skill, navigating its menus and configuration windows often requires a significant time investment just to answer a simple question. We knew there had to be an easier way, so we designed Graphed to remove that complexity entirely. Instead of clicking through menus to build dashboard actions, you can simply ask in plain English, "Create a dashboard showing a map of sales by state and a bar chart of sales by category. Make it so clicking a state filters the category chart," and Graphed builds the interactive dashboard for you in seconds.