#MakeoverMonday Tableau tip on how to highlight a selected value

by Laura Scavino

For my latest #MakeoverMonday on wine production, I decided to use a really quick table calculation which relies on the use of parameters.

The quick trick helped me select the desired country but instead of highlighting it with an highlighter, I decided to use this simple trick.

 

When selecting on a country the colour red points at it, while everything else stays grey. Simple and effective way to draw attention into a specific value at the time.

Fist build the parameter  based on the value to show. In this case I had all the countries in the data set, therefore I clicked on Create a parameter, string data type and list values. Then I selected ‘add from field’ and clicked on ‘Country’.  and selectadd from field’

 

After showing the parameter in the view, link it through a really simple calculated field, which I called ‘Highlight country’.

 

The Boolean calculation will therefore provide a yes or no answer and it will colour code the fields if dropped on the colour mark. It is possible then to customise the colours of the two values. As a tip I would recommend colouring the false with a grey, since it provides a sense of secondary information.