Add More Data to Your Tableau Data Story

Applies to: Tableau Cloud, Tableau Desktop

Important changes for Tableau Data Stories

Tableau Data Stories will be retired in Tableau Desktop, Tableau Cloud, and Tableau Server in January of 2025 (2025.1). With advances in natural language technologies, we're developing an improved interface that will make it easier to ask questions of your data and stay on top of changes. For more information, see How Tableau Pulse powered by Tableau AI is Reimagining the Data Experience(Link opens in a new window).

Data Stories currently supports stories with two dimensions and one measure, or one dimension and up to 10 measures. If you'd like to write about data that you don't need to show on your dashboard, then use a hidden sheet to simplify your dashboard. If you'd like to add more than two dimensions to your story, then concatenate dimensions or create multiple data stories and stack them.

Use a hidden sheet

If you have data that you want to include in a Tableau Data Story and don't need to show all the data that drove the insight, you can use a hidden sheet to bring additional measures and dimensions into your story without cluttering the dashboard.

  1. Drag the Data Story object to your dashboard to see which worksheets you can write about in the Data Story dialog box. In this example, there are two worksheets available to write about.

    Data Story dialog box showing two available sheets: Tourism by Country/Region and Tourism Over Time.
  1. Bring in another data source, such as "Population," by navigating to the left-hand menu, selecting Floating, and dragging that sheet onto your dashboard.

    Data Story dialog box showing three available sheets: Population, Tourism by Country/Region, and Tourism Over Time.

The Data Story dialog box updates with the new available data source.

  1. Click into Layout and adjust the size to 1 x 1 to hide the sheet but keep the underlying data in your story.

    The Dashboard pane with Floating selected.

You can now configure your stories using this hidden sheet.

Note: You may need to deselect additional legend elements to keep the sheet hidden.

Concatenate dimensions

If your data contains three dimensions and one measure and is a Discrete Story, you can concatenate (link together) two of those dimensions by creating a calculated field.

  1. From the worksheet you want to use in your story, click Analysis and select Create Calculated Field.
  2. Name the calculated field and use the following formula to create your calculation, using the + sign to join the dimensions.
    [Dimension 1] + [Dimension 2]

    A calculation box that says "[Population 0-14]+[Population 15-64]"

Tip: Drag your dimensions into the Calculated Field box and place them in the formula.

  1. Click OK.
  2. Drag your new calculated field into the Detail pane to make it accessible in your data story.

Stack multiple data stories

Write about more measures and dimensions by creating multiple Data Stories and stacking them vertically or horizontally on your dashboard.

For example, if you wanted to create a story about actual revenue vs benchmark revenue, you could create two different stories—one with the actual revenue and the first benchmark, and another with the actual revenue and the second benchmark—and compare them.

 

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