Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to hide something on a Tableau Dashboard? Something you, the designer wanted to see, but not something the end-user of the published dashboard should see.

Maybe it’s a set of instructions to remind yourself of how quick filters and parameters should be set prior to publishing. Maybe it’s a drop down control for your action filter(s) so you can see what actions have been triggered and easily reset the action. Maybe it’s an email message from the private account of a government official that you want to keep from the prying eyes of the public.

Whatever the case, there is a way!

Click to enlarge image

You can place any dashboard item just off the dashboard (in a fixed size dashboard) and when it’s published, the end-user will never see it.

How to get the dashboard item to the hidden place

The only trick is how to get something off the dashboard. If you drag it there you get nothing. Or if it was already on the dashboard, dragging it off is the same thing as removing it.

So instead, place it on the “real dashboard” as a floating item. Then use the Position controls in the lower left to set the X and Y coordinates to position it off the dashboard.

The end result is a published dashboard that hides all the elements that were off the dashboard.

I sure wish I’d known this technique when I developed the Choose Your Own Adventure or BlackJack! dashboards. Then, I created a secondary dashboard with everything on it and a special action filter to “reset” the dashboard as I designed and tested. Instead, I could have just hidden the action filters off-grid and reset as desired.

Check out the dashboard in action:

All the hidden items I added to the dashboard are there, but in order to see all my secrets you’ll have to download the workbook and open it in Desktop…

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