# Tableau Desktop: How to use dashboard grids.

> 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:** 2020-02-10
- **Format:** Video · 16 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, formatting)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-desktop-how-to-use-dashboard-grids
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/q4Defpud7oo

I walk through Tableau Desktop's dashboard grid feature, showing how to enable it, set the grid size, and align floated content to it. I then take grids further by introducing the grid system used in print and web design, using an online grid guide tool to plan column layouts and rebuild a dashboard with consistent margins and gutters.

## Key takeaways

- Enable the grid via the dashboard menu (Show Grid) and adjust spacing under Grid Options — small values like 17-20 pixels are easier to work with than the default 140.
- Grids are most useful with floated layouts, since 2019.4 has no snap-to-grid; you manually nudge content to maintain consistent margins around the canvas.
- Choose dashboard dimensions that divide cleanly by your grid size so margins finish in exactly the right place (e.g. setting height to a multiple of your grid value).
- Use an online grid-guide tool to plan a column-based layout from your dashboard width, then bring the exported grid in as a floated image positioned at X=0 with width matching the dashboard.
- Set floated objects to precise pixel positions and widths, and use untick 'all sides equal' padding to add outer margins for evenly distributed, coherent content.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Enabling and sizing the grid
- 1:07 Floated layouts and aligning content
- 4:39 The grid system in design
- 6:27 Planning columns with a grid guide
- 10:09 Applying the grid to the dashboard
- 14:04 Final padding and spacing fixes

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

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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