# How to Show & hide dashboard containers in Tableau Desktop 2019.2 and newer

> 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:** 2020-01-10
- **Format:** Video · 3 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (containers, dashboards)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-show-hide-dashboard-containers-in-tableau-desktop-2019-2-and-newer
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/eK7mYf0suoo

I demonstrate the show and hide container feature introduced in Tableau Desktop 2019.2, turning a side menu into a collapsible panel. I cover how to make a container floating, add the show/hide button, and preview it, then point to some great community examples.

## Key takeaways

- The show/hide button needs the container holding your objects to be set as a floating container first
- Unlike collapsing containers, a show/hide container disappears completely rather than leaving a two or three pixel gap
- Clicking the button normally does nothing in design mode; hold Option or Alt and click to simulate the show/hide action
- Filter and legend preferences are retained even while the container is hidden away
- Browse community examples like Mark Reed's workbooks for advanced uses such as overlay help sheets and switching chart types

## Chapters

- 0:00 The problem with collapsing containers
- 0:42 Making the side menu floating
- 0:59 Adding and previewing the show/hide button
- 1:51 Community examples to explore

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-show-hide-dashboard-containers-in-tableau-desktop-2019-2-and-newer

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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