By Dawn Harrington
Have you ever wondered how to make rounded corners for your visualizations in Tableau without using Figma? I just figured out how to do so! I discovered the following method by reviewing this great dashboard titled Superstore Overview Dashboard by Alfred Chan.
The answer is to use Annotations to create a background template. It also helps if you already have a dashboard created with the layout in place. I used this method to revise my Running Sum dashboard here.
On a new sheet I entered a string calculation ("") and placed this on the Text marks card.
I then changed the view from Standard to Entire View.
I formatted this worksheet to be a teal color in the Data pane. This step helps you to see the template later.
Then I right-clicked on this space and selected Annotate > Area.
In the Edit Annotation pop-up menu I did not enter any text, I just clicked OK.
Then I proceeded to expand the annotation across the top of the worksheet. This will server as a placeholder for the Title of my dashboard.
I right-clicked on this annotation to get to the Format menu in the Data pane. I bumped up the Shading to 100%, selected White as the color and under Corners, I selected Very Rounded.
Then I proceeded to add other annotations. This is not an exact process. You have to eyeball the visual spaces between each annotation. This may require adjustment. I bumped up the contrast on my monitor so I can see the annotations I wasn't working on compared to the one I was adjusting.
Here is the finalized template;
Now to add this to the dashboard.
I duplicated my Rolling Sum dashboard so I could retain my previous dashboard for comparison.
I clicked on the existing container for the entire dashboard and selected Floating.
Then I dragged the template worksheet to the dashboard.
I hid the Title of the worksheet.
Then I expanded the floating container to be overtop of the template.
I then proceeded to clear the background colors of each worksheet in the floating container; Parameter, Filters, Title etc.
I had to go to my BAN worksheet to remove the white background.
I also had to go back to the template and adjust the annotations to have more of a gap on the left side of the dashboard.
You may also have to adjust any inner and outer padding of your worksheets so they appear inside the rounded templates.
My finalized dashboard is below;
Feel free to click on the Navigation buttons in this dashboard in Tableau Public to see the details.