Tableau Quick Tip - Displaying specific mark labels on a map

by Hafeez Sanusi

Today we were going through Tableau Advanced which featured various Level of Detail Expressions (LOD’s) and Table Calculations. Whilst attempting various tasks set by Andy; he demonstrated a quick trick that can be used to permanently display specific labels on different areas of a map.

Currently, we have a global map which shows the sum of profit for each country. The levels of profit are indicated by the change in colour, with higher levels of profit becoming darker shades of blue. There are not any labels present within the map to indicate the sum of profit a specific country has.

If you wanted to focus on a specific country’s profit – for example, Russia – then you can simply just:

-Right click on the country you want to be labeled

-Click on Mark Label. This will open a drop-down menu providing three options: Automatic, Always Show and Never Show

-Click on Always Show. This will allow the mark to be permanently labeled unless you alter the settings. This is different from Automatic, because if you choose to leave the Mark Label on Automatic; Tableau may not always show the label if others are too close or overlapping. Below is your result:

-This can be done for more than one mark (in this case; country) and other types of charts (line, bar, etc). You can format the label within the Label section on the Marks Card. This allows you to change the font type, font size and align the label on the mark.


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Hafeez Sanusi

Fri 21 Jun 2019

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