Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

When you add a filter to a worksheet, by default it applies to the current worksheet. Sometimes, however, you might want to apply the filter to other worksheets in the workbook.

You can select specific worksheets to apply the filter to or apply it globally to all worksheets that use the same data source or related data sources. For example, you might have a filter that only includes a specific region or product of interest. Rather than adding this filter every time you create a new worksheet, you can simply create the filter once and then apply it to multiple worksheets.

For examples of global filters, see The Global Filters Tab(Link opens in a new window) on Ryan Sleeper's(Link opens in a new window) website, and Dashboard Design: Adding Interactivity(Link opens in a new window) on the Interworks blog(Link opens in a new window).

Apply filters to all worksheets that use a related primary data source

This option applies the filter to all worksheets that use related data sources as their primary data source.

Note: To apply a filter to worksheets that use a related primary data source in web authoring, relationships between the data sources must be set up in Tableau Desktop, and then published to the web.

For more information, see Filter Data Across Multiple Data Sources(Link opens in a new window).

To apply a filter to all worksheets using a related primary data source:

• On the Filters shelf, right-click the field and select Apply to Worksheets > All Using Related Data Sources.

Filters that use this option are global across the workbook.

Filters that apply to all related data sources are marked with an icon. The filter is automatically created on any existing worksheets, and on any new worksheets you create that use a related data source.

Any changes you make to the filter affects all of those worksheets.

Apply filters to all worksheets that use the current primary data source

This option applies the filter to all worksheets that use the current worksheet's primary data source as their primary data source.

To apply a filter to all worksheets using the current primary data source:

• On the Filters shelf, right-click the field and select Apply to Worksheets > All Using This Data Source.

Filters that use this option are global across the workbook.

Filters that apply to all worksheets are marked with a data source icon . The filter is automatically created on any new worksheets you create after you drag a field to the view.

Any changes you make to the filter affects all of those worksheets.

Note: If you are blending multiple data sources in a view, All Using This Data Source adds the filter to all sheets that use the same primary data source in the current sheet. The sheets that the filter gets applied to is not based on the filter field’s data source.

Apply filters to select worksheets

This option opens a dialog box where you can select from a list of worksheets that use the same data source or related data sources.

To apply a filter to select worksheets:

• On the Filters shelf, right-click the field and select Apply to Worksheets > Selected Worksheets.

• In the Apply Filter to Worksheets dialog box, select the worksheets that you want to apply the filter. If any of the sheets already contain a filter on the same field, the dialog box will provide details about the filter.

  If you select the sheet, the current filter will override any existing filter selections.

  

Filters that apply to a selection of worksheets are marked with the worksheet icon . Any changes you make to the filter affect all of the selected worksheets.

Apply filters to the current worksheet only

This option only applies to the current worksheet. This option is selected by default when you create new filters. Filters that are local to the current worksheet are shown without any additional icons.

To apply a filter to the current worksheet only:

• On the Filters shelf, right-click the field and select Apply to Worksheets > Only This Worksheet.

If you apply a filter to all worksheets or selected worksheets and then change the setting to apply the filter to just the current worksheet, the filters are not removed from all other worksheets. Rather, the filters are disconnected and they are all made local to their respective worksheets. You can go to each worksheet and remove the filter or modify selections.

Filter all worksheets on a dashboard

This option applies the filter to all worksheets in the dashboard that use the same data source or related data sources as their primary data source.

To filter all worksheets on a dashboard:

• In a dashboard, click the drop-down menu on a filter card and select Apply to Worksheets > Selected worksheets.

• In the Apply Filter to Worksheets dialog box, click All on dashboard, and then click OK.

Note: In previous versions of Tableau Desktop, the All Using This Data Source option was called Make Global and the Only This Worksheet option was Make Local.