Then right click on the image and вЂњsave as pictureвЂќ. Change the fill color to вЂњno fillвЂќ and outline color to вЂњno outlineвЂќ. Open PowerPoint and create a shape (any shape you want).

That blank space on the second row of my custom shapes palette, is my transparent shape.Д¬reating a blank or transparent shape is quite simple using PowerPoint. What you can see is that IвЂ™ve assigned a circle to the values I want to show on my chart and a blank shape to those I want to not show up. Using blank/transparent shapes on a chart on marks you donвЂ™t need to call out. What you canвЂ™t tell is that actually every point has a shape on it however, IвЂ™ve assigned all non-high or -low values to the blank/transparent shape.

I teach the use of transparent shapes it in my online data viz course using my SuperStore Dashboard.В In the example below, the area chart has two circles for the high/low points on the chart. Kevin Flerlage will be sharing another blog post shortly on even more use cases! Luke Stanke writes about a number of use cases for the blank shape. Blank (or transparent) shapes have a number of versatile uses. If you arenвЂ™t sure what I mean by a вЂњblankвЂќ button, I simply mean using a blank shape as your navigation button. Well, sign me up! ThatвЂ™s what we are here to learn. So what if there was a quicker alternative that leveraged some of TableauвЂ™s native features (such as simple images and text boxes) to reduce the number of custom buttons you had to create?

In this example, I had to create the four individual buttons to use. One of the challenges I have with creating custom buttons is that if you are looking to create buttons with text, you have to create a separate image button for each one. Check it out here.Д«elow is an example of custom buttons I created using the FlerlageвЂ™s initial template. Kevin and Ken Flerlage have a great workbook that has a direct link to a PowerPoint slide deck with a ton of created custom buttons which you can edit to your heartвЂ™s content! This can give you a leg up on your design, resulting in some time saving. I typically use Figma, Adobe XD, or PowerPoint to create my custom buttons, but this can take up precious time, especially if you have to create a lot of them. One of the great benefits of using an image as a button is that you can customize it to your clientвЂ™s or your personal needs. Typically, organizing the text buttons at the top of the dashboard all in a row will help to indicate that they are navigation buttons as they then resemble a menu. One main drawback is that itвЂ™s imperative you make the text button clear that itвЂ™s a button and not just helper text. I find text buttons useful and typically pretty obvious for a user to use even though I donвЂ™t see them used too much in Public vizzes. Text Buttons as a MenuД«y using a filled container and setting all padding to 0, except for the bottom (set to 2), for the navigation buttons you can create the look below with an underline to draw your userвЂ™s attention to the buttons. There are currently some limitations in the colors you can select, but I hope that Tableau changes that so that all custom colors are accessible. You have the ability to customize the colors and text of the button as well as the tooltip. Text buttons are perfect for simulating a menu and provide a quick navigation solution since no custom image is needed. Navigation buttons currently can be used as an image button or a text button. As of Tableau 2018.3, we have had the вЂњnavigation buttonвЂќ dashboard object to provide our users with a seamless transition from one dashboard to another without the use of the native tabs, or a dummy navigation worksheet and вЂњgo to sheetвЂќ action filter.

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