Highlight Actions

Applies to: Tableau Cloud, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server

Highlight actions allow you to call attention to marks of interest by colouring specific marks and dimming all others. You can highlight marks in the view using a variety of tools. For example, you can manually select the marks you want to highlight, use the legend to select related marks, use the highlighter to search for marks in context or create an advanced highlight action.

The following table describes the different methods you can use to highlight marks in a view, dashboard or story.

Highlight method	Benefits	When you might use this
Select marks	Manually select a group of marks to highlight in a view. Your selection is saved with the workbook.	When you want to manually highlight a selection of marks and dim all others. Works well with small domains or views with a small amount of data.
Legends	Supports one-way and two-way highlighting. Highlight on colour, size or shape. You can disable or enable the highlighting action for the workbook or sheets from the toolbar. Your selection is saved with the workbook and can be included in dashboards and stories and when publishing.	When you want to focus on select members in a view and dim all others. When you want to highlight using only the legend or the legend and the view. Works well with small domains or views with a small amount of data.
Highlighter	Search for data points in a view using keywords or select from a drop-down list. Highlight marks while maintaining the context of the other data points. Values automatically update when the underlying data is updated. Highlighters added to worksheets also appear on dashboards and stories.	When you want to highlight a mark or group of marks for a discrete field that is included in the view. When you want to do ad hoc comparisons with instant highlighting. Works well with large domains and large amounts of data.
Actions (Tableau Desktop only)	Highlight data based on criteria that you define. Specify the source and target sheets to apply the highlight action to. Specify the fields to use for highlighting. You can specify different types of actions to run on the same click (for example, filter and highlight).	When you want to build interactive exploration into a dashboard. When you want to highlight data points in a dashboard using specific fields.

Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

Highlight Actions

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