I wish I knew about layout containers sooner to organize my dashboards. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I used a translucent ruler in designing my first application visualization. Once I found the Layout pane in the sidebar, I carefully dragged each element to adjust the height, paying particular attention to the height value. I don’t want anyone else to undergo that same arduous process!! For anyone applying to the Data School, please use containers!

But first, what are containers?

According to Tableau, “layout containers let you group related dashboard items together so you can quickly position them. As you change the size and placement of items inside a container, other container items automatically adjust. Layout containers can also be used for formatting.”

There are two layout container types: horizontal and vertical. They can be found in the Objects section of the Dashboard pane.

HORIZONTAL CONTAINERS

Horizontal containers store elements horizontally, like so:

They often help in resizing the height of the views and objects they contain. After selecting the horizontal container, click the triangle under the pushpin to open up the following menu:

My favorite options from this menu include:

• “Distribute Contents Evenly” equally proportions content within a container.
• “Fix Height” keeps the container the same size, regardless of the size of the window.
• “Edit Height” adjusts the width of the container.
  

VERTICAL CONTAINERS

Vertical containers store elements vertically, like so:

They often help in resizing the width of the views and objects they contain. After selecting the vertical container, click the triangle under the pushpin to open up the following menu:

This menu is similar to that of the horizontal container, yet note that “Fix Width” is selected. As a result, the pushpin icon next to the selected container is filled.

Horizontal and vertical containers can be used together in a single dashboard like so:

Achieving your ideal layout with horizontal and vertical containers takes planning! However, once it’s achieved, the layout is balanced and symmetrical with the “Distribute Contents Evenly” function of containers. Further, if you want to incorporate new content, it is easy as everything adjusts for you.

There are even more perks to containers, which I will delve into in another blog post – stay tuned for Containers 102.