0:00Hello and welcome to this video on layout
0:02containers in under 10 minutes.
0:05I recorded the last video on this topic in
0:06August of 2014 and almost 60,000 views
0:10later,
0:11I think it's long overdue an update.
0:13Now to inform the update, what I've done is
0:16I've looked at the last videos I recorded
0:18on this topic
0:19and it's really really clear that no one
0:20wants to spend more than 5 to 6 minutes on
0:23layout containers.
0:24So to help you along with that, what I've
0:26done is in the description of this video, I
0:28've contained chapter markers
0:30and in these chapter markers you can skip
0:31to the relevant section that you want to
0:33cover.
0:34The other thing is I'm not going to be able
0:36to cover every topic in detail.
0:38So you'll occasionally see these
0:39information cards and you can click on
0:41those and head to a more detailed video on
0:44that topic.
0:45Now the other thing I'm going to do is I'm
0:47going to add some notes in the description
0:50and these notes simply cover all the big
0:52features that have been deployed to the
0:54dashboarding capability in desktop.
0:56You can have a scroll and essentially
0:57anything highlighted in yellow is a major
0:59workflow change to how dashboarding works.
1:02So you should take a look at that feature
1:04and really understand the value that it can
1:06bring.
1:07I'll be releasing videos on all of these
1:08highlighted features in the near future.
1:11For everything since 2019, the videos
1:13already exist so hop into those tutorials
1:15now and take advantage of those.
1:18Okay, let's dive in.
1:20Okay, so I'm inside a very simple workbook
1:22here. I've connected to Sample Superstore
1:24Sales and I've built a basic bar chart.
1:27We're going to use this to talk about
1:28layout containers.
1:29I'm going to create a brand new dashboard
1:31and I'm just going to rename this very
1:33quickly.
1:34Okay, so now we're here. The first thing to
1:36do is to introduce you to the different
1:38layout container types.
1:40There's actually three. There's the
1:41horizontal container type, the vertical
1:43container type and the tiled container type
1:46.
1:47Those live here in the objects pane on the
1:49bottom left.
1:50So you see the horizontal container here
1:52and this allows you to stack content side
1:55by side.
1:56The vertical container allows you to stack
1:58content vertically above each other.
2:01And the tiled layout container doesn't
2:03actually have an object apart from the fact
2:06that you can see here that in grey,
2:08I've got this option here selected as tiled
2:10. I can toggle floating, but I'm going to
2:12keep this tiled.
2:14What I want to do is highlight the
2:15different behaviours between tiled and
2:18floating.
2:19So if I switch over to floating and I drag
2:21this bar chart, you'll see that I get a
2:23square.
2:25And this actually allows me to drop the
2:27content anywhere on the dashboard.
2:29And along with it, I'll get the legend sort
2:31of attached to that item.
2:34If I go back one step and I switch to tiled
2:38, I do the same thing when I drop the bar
2:40chart onto the dashboard.
2:42You'll actually see the whole page goes
2:44grey.
2:45When I let go, it actually creates this
2:47design. And you can see here that if I
2:49select the bar chart, this is in grey.
2:51If I select this side, it's in blue. And
2:53there's actually a reason behind that
2:55colouring.
2:57This is because Tableau has actually tiled
2:59the layout for me.
3:00And the only way to know about how it's
3:01done that is to go to the item hierarchy.
3:04This can be found in the layout pane here
3:06in the top and going down here to the
3:08bottom.
3:09I'll just zoom in here. You can see this is
3:11the item hierarchy.
3:13If I expand this out a little bit more, you
3:15can actually see that in that one drag and
3:17drop, Tableau was quite busy.
3:19It contained a whole range of layout items.
3:22And now you can see the full range of
3:23layout containers.
3:25A tiled container in blue, highlighted here
3:27across the entire page.
3:29Another horizontal container, which is
3:31inside of that tiled container.
3:33And in it contains two containers, tiled
3:36and vertical.
3:38And then you'll see that content here is
3:39actually marked in a different colour.
3:42Content is always highlighted in grey and
3:44containers are always highlighted in blue.
3:47And that's the best way of distinguishing
3:49what's what on a tiled dashboard.
3:52The last thing to highlight is if I click
3:54in this vertical container, you'll see that
3:57it has this sort of hashed design here.
3:59Don't be worried about this. This is just a
4:01signal to let you know that there's some
4:02white space that's not being used.
4:04And that's because inside of this vertical
4:06container, the legend is only taking up the
4:09top section.
4:10To use up that white space was to get rid
4:11of that.
4:12If that really annoys you, you can actually
4:13go to the dashboard, bring in the blank
4:16option here.
4:18And when I place that in there, that
4:20disappears.
4:21And then if I go back to my layout tab and
4:23I go to the item hierarchy and click on
4:25vertical, you'll see that I have two items.
4:28The category and legend up at the top and
4:30then the blank, which takes up the rest of
4:32the space.
4:33So the blank containers incredibly useful
4:35here because it can help fill up white
4:38space.
4:39OK, we've covered the tiled container, but
4:41what about floating containers?
4:43Well, if I head over to the top section
4:46here and I select the tiled container at
4:49the top and I right click on that container
4:51and remove the container.
4:53This dashboard actually becomes a floated
4:55dashboard because if I select the
4:57horizontal container and I simply move it
4:59around,
5:00you see that everything inside of it moves
5:02around.
5:03So in one file sweep, I've actually changed
5:05the system of this dashboard from a tiled
5:07dashboard to a floating dashboard.
5:10Now, depending on the version that you're
5:12using in Tableau, you just want to check
5:14the behavior of floated dashboard because
5:16they don't always preserve their position.
5:19I'm using the latest version of Tableau.
5:21So actually, as I change the size of this
5:23dashboard, it keeps the relative position
5:26and the relative location the same.
5:29However, in other versions of Tableau, you
5:31might not get that behavior.
5:32So just be sure to double check that
5:34behavior before you publish that dashboard.
5:37It can cause things to shift a few pixels
5:39here and there.
5:40Now that we've covered tiled and floating
5:41layout containers, it's time to look at the
5:43behaviors.
5:44I'm going to create a new dashboard here
5:46and I'm just going to rename that to layout
5:48containers two.
5:49The first thing I'm going to do is drag a
5:50horizontal container out and I'm going to
5:52make sure that it's floating, as you can
5:54see here, and drag that out to fill the
5:56entire width of the page.
5:58I'm also going to drag a vertical one here
5:59in the middle and I'm going to drag that
6:01out to fill the vertical height in the page
6:03.
6:04Now, one of the things I haven't covered
6:05yet is that in the layout tab, you've got
6:07all these formatting options for layout
6:09containers.
6:10You see, I have the vertical layout
6:11container selected here and I actually get
6:13the X and Y coordinates.
6:15You can adjust that here and move the
6:17object in the dashboard.
6:19You can also change the size and the width,
6:21the border of the layout containers, and
6:22also things like the background color.
6:25I find this particular step extremely
6:27useful helping label your layout containers
6:30and helping you know which layout container
6:32is doing what.
6:33The other option you get is for outer
6:34padding.
6:35Now, outer padding adds a little bit of
6:37white space on the outside of the border,
6:40whereas inner padding actually adds that
6:42space on the inside of the border.
6:44You can't see anything happening here
6:45because there's nothing inside of the
6:47layout container.
6:48So a little later on, you'll see that as I
6:49add items, that space is being observed.
6:52If I go over to the horizontal layout
6:53container, I'll just quickly set the
6:55background color to orange and I'll give it
6:57a slightly thicker border so it's clear to
7:00see what's going on.
7:01Okay, so what I've done is I've created
7:03three new sheets, sales, profit, and profit
7:06ratio, all as simple text items.
7:09And if we go back to my layout containers
7:11tab, I just want to add these individually
7:13to these layout containers.
7:15So I'll head over to the dashboard view and
7:16I'll just start by dragging sales onto the
7:18canvas.
7:19Now, notice when I drag it over the layout
7:21container, it gives me the same
7:23highlighting as if it was a tiled option.
7:26That's because all layout containers with
7:28contents in them behave in a tiled manner.
7:31So if I drop that in there, you'll see that
7:32the sheet takes up the height of the sheet
7:34as it was designed.
7:36I have a little bit of space here at the
7:38bottom, but as I add the next one, I get a
7:40few visual cues.
7:42I get this one on the left, this one on the
7:44top, and this one on the right.
7:46Now, this is absolutely fundamental.
7:48If you want this to remain a horizontal
7:50layout container, you need to drag this
7:53item on either side of the existing object.
7:56So it has to go here on the right hand side
7:58or on the left.
8:00If I do that for profit and then I come in
8:02here and I drag another one for profit
8:04ratio,
8:05you'll see I no longer get the option to
8:07drag it above and below.
8:09That's because this layout container can
8:10now no longer be a vertical layout
8:12container.
8:13So you must be wondering, well, why would a
8:15horizontal layout become a vertical
8:17container?
8:18Well, let's go back a few steps. Let's
8:20pretend we've only got this one item here.
8:23If I then drag profit below, I get the
8:25option to add it below.
8:27But at this point, when I drop the sheet
8:28into the layout container, it now becomes a
8:30vertical layout container.
8:33Let me just show you that this is the
8:34vertical container.
8:36Go back one step. It was a horizontal
8:38container.
8:39Go forward one step. It's a vertical
8:40container.
8:41So you must understand that when you drop
8:43items into a layout container,
8:46it really does matter where you put them
8:48because it can change the behavior of how
8:49the layout behavior behaves.
8:52Okay, we just got a few things to finish
8:55off now.
8:57We just need to kind of space these items
8:58out so they take up the whole entire
9:00horizontal layout container.
9:02You can select those items and then double
9:04click the tab to select the horizontal
9:06layout container on top.
9:08Double clicking an object selects its
9:10parent container.
9:12If I go to the container and then I select
9:14distribute contents evenly, Tableau spaces
9:17the art contents out evenly.
9:19It doesn't take up all the space just yet
9:21because each of these sheets need to be set
9:22to hit the entire view.
9:24Let me do that for the remaining two.
9:27And now you can see this is now performing
9:29the way I'd like it to.
9:31Now, the last thing I'd like to do is to
9:32put this vertical container inside of my
9:34horizontal container.
9:36It's quite common that you might actually
9:37put containers inside of containers to
9:39create a certain desired effect.
9:41To do that, you just need to grab your
9:43vertical container here or whichever
9:45container you're using.
9:46And when you hold shift, it becomes
9:47something that you can drop into a tiled
9:49layout container.
9:51If I let go, I get that floating item back.
9:54If I hold shift, I now have the ability to
9:56place it.
9:57So what I want to do is place that here
9:58between profit and sales.
10:00When I do that, because I've set the
10:02container to distribute contents evenly,
10:06there's now four items so that each get a
10:07quarter of the space available.
10:09I can now select the horizontal layout
10:11container by double clicking that vertical
10:13container and then moving that around.
10:16It's a bit of a mind maze.
10:18Don't forget, if you're getting lost, you
10:19're not sure what's going on, you can always
10:20go to layout and then go to item hierarchy
10:23to see what's going on.
10:24And you can select the items there as well.
10:26It's often sometimes an easier place to do
10:28that.
10:29Now, what I'd like to do is drag a few
10:30items into this vertical container.
10:32If you recall, it was set to have a certain
10:35padding on the outside and the inside.
10:38So if I drag a blank item into this layout
10:40container and I keep dragging more, I have
10:43to drag them below.
10:44Remember, because this is a vertical layout
10:45container, I can't put it on the side.
10:48You'll see that these blank options now
10:50preserve this white space here in between
10:52the border and the actual object itself.
10:55So that white space that I created prior is
10:57now kicking in.
10:59If you want to change that, you can of
11:00course go to layout and just keep
11:02increasing that white space.
11:04And you can see that the blank containers
11:06now have a lot bigger gap on the outside.
11:09And so using these techniques, if you
11:11combine all of these techniques and a bit
11:12of design, a little bit of minimalist
11:15design, you can start to come up with some
11:16really, really nice layouts.
11:18But hopefully, I've taught you some of the
11:20fundamentals of layout containers.
11:22And if you found this video useful, hit
11:24subscribe. Otherwise, drop a like, drop a
11:25comment. Let me know what you'd like to see
11:27.
11:28[Music]
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