# How to use Dashboard Zones in Tableau Desktop 2019.1 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:** 2020-01-11
- **Format:** Video · 2 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, layout containers)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-use-dashboard-zones-in-tableau-desktop-2019-1-and-newer
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/2aLbj850czo

I walk through the dashboard zones feature added in Tableau 2019.1, which lets you rename the layout containers shown in the item hierarchy on the layout tab. I show how naming these zones makes it far easier to understand the structure of a dashboard, especially one built by someone else.

## Key takeaways

- Zones are the layout containers on a Tableau dashboard, visible as the blue border around selected sheets
- The item hierarchy on the layout tab shows the nested tiled containers that make up a dashboard
- Tableau 2019.1 lets you rename zones so containers like 'charts' or 'whole dashboard' are self-explanatory
- Naming zones makes it much easier to navigate and make sense of complex dashboards built by others

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-use-dashboard-zones-in-tableau-desktop-2019-1-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