# Apply proportional brushing to your charts instead of filtering | Tableau Charts

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2023-02-13
- **Format:** Video · 4 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, formatting, set actions, sets)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/apply-proportional-brushing-to-your-charts-instead-of-filtering-tableau-charts
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZzKBkEyKA

I show you how to apply proportional brushing in Tableau as an alternative to filtering. By combining a pie chart and a bar chart with a set and a set action, you can highlight how a selection is represented within the existing data rather than removing data from the view.

## Key takeaways

- Filtering changes the context of a visualisation by removing data, whereas proportional brushing keeps everything in view and shows how a selection is represented within the existing data
- Create a set from a dimension with all values selected so that the default state shows everything
- Drag the category set onto colour so the colour is driven by the set, then reapply your colours as needed
- Set up a set action on the dashboard that changes the set values, adding selected values when you click and all values when you clear the selection
- Use a gray palette and a dual-axis Gantt-style trick to keep the unselected data visible, and switch on animations under Format for a smooth transition effect

## Chapters

- 0:15 The problem with filtering
- 0:48 Creating a set on the bar chart
- 1:19 Reapplying colours via the set
- 1:51 Setting up the set action
- 2:41 Proportional brushing and final styling

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/apply-proportional-brushing-to-your-charts-instead-of-filtering-tableau-charts

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena