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Tableau | Data visualisation

Tracking Reference Lines: Tableau Quick Tip

Here's a neat trick to make a reference line track your cursor across two charts at once.

Tim Ngwena •19 October 2016 •1 min read •4 min watch •4.7K

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Create a hover-based highlight dashboard action between both sheets, passing date and time fields and ticking both directions so each chart affects the other
Add a minimum reference line and leave 'show recalculated line for highlighted or selected data points' enabled so the line follows your cursor
Because the action is hover rather than click, you avoid selecting multiple marks, keeping the minimum tied to a single point
Hide the resting reference line by fixing the axis start to the earliest date so it tucks behind the axis
Use the label option to only label highlighted marks, so point labels appear automatically when the highlight action fires

0:00Hi, welcome to this quick tip video on how

0:07to manipulate reference lines.

0:10So essentially in this makeover Monday

0:12visualization, I have this feature where

0:14when I hover over

0:15a particular part of the chart, the

0:17reference line draws across two different

0:19charts.

0:19You can see it here, scrubbing across both

0:22charts.

0:23So this is one chart, this is another chart

0:25.

0:25So I'm just going to show you how to

0:26achieve the same effect in your own

0:28visualization.

0:29To do that, I'm going to switch to this

0:31version of the same visualization where

0:33that behavior

0:34doesn't exist.

0:35So currently, I just have responsive tool

0:39tips.

0:39To do this, you need to do three things.

0:42The first step is I actually need a

0:44dashboard action between the two sheets.

0:47So this is actually a highlight action from

0:50sheets one and two to sheets one and two.

0:52The reason I'm leaving both of these ticked

0:54is because I want the behavior to happen

0:56both

0:57ways.

0:58I want both charts to be able to affect the

1:00other.

1:01So that's the first step, making sure this

1:04is a hover selection.

1:06And I only want to pass across dates and

1:08times.

1:09I could just select fields and use dates,

1:11but there's an option there already pre

1:13selected

1:13for you.

1:14So I'll just use that.

1:15It's also good practice to name your

1:17actions.

1:18So I'm going to call this the date action.

1:21I'm going to click OK.

1:24When I do that now, you can see that it's

1:26now highlighting the lower chart.

1:28And again, when I do the same at the bottom

1:30, it's now highlighting the above chart.

1:32So that's half the effect achieved.

1:34Now to do the next bit, it requires a trick

1:37with reference lines.

1:39So the second thing I now need to do is add

1:41a reference line.

1:42And in this particular case, I need it to

1:45be the minimum.

1:46And I'm going to set this to none.

1:49And it's really important that you leave

1:51this option here where you show recal

1:53culated line

1:53for highlighted or selected data points.

1:56Because when I hover or highlight something

1:58in one shot, it's going to move the

2:00reference

2:01line to the thing that I've selected.

2:03OK.

2:04And I'm going to have this for the entire

2:06table.

2:07OK.

2:08And click OK.

2:09So now when I highlight this, you see the

2:11line, the reference line that was at the

2:13minimum

2:14starting point here moves with my cursor

2:16because it's actually saying what's the

2:19minimum of

2:19what I selected.

2:20If I was to drag and select, the minimum

2:22would actually be here on the left-hand

2:24side.

2:25But because the interaction here requires

2:27you to hover, then you don't really end up

2:30in a situation where you select multiple

2:33items.

2:34I need to do the same thing here.

2:37Sorry, not edit the axis.

2:41I need to add a reference line.

2:42I want to have none there.

2:45And I want it minimum.

2:46And I need to leave this option ticked.

2:48OK.

2:49So I've achieved that effect.

2:50And now the final thing to polish this off

2:52is actually to hide that line.

2:54Personally, I find it quite annoying that

2:56there's a line staying there.

2:58So what I'm actually going to do is fix the

3:00axis so that that line disappears just

3:02behind

3:03the axis.

3:04So to do that, I'm going to set the date on

3:06the left-hand axis to the 1st of April.

3:08Click Apply.

3:09And it just disappears.

3:11If I actually hover over it, it's right

3:12there.

3:12You can see that Tablet gives me a label.

3:15But because it's right on the line, it puts

3:17it behind the axis.

3:19Same again here.

3:20I'm going to edit the axis, fix it to the

3:23left.

3:24OK.

3:25So that's pretty much it.

3:28Now when I hover over the item, you can see

3:31it draws a line.

3:32And I have this capability here to sort of

3:35scrabble across the line.

3:36And it doesn't matter which one I'm in, it

3:39always draws a line back up to the other

3:41chart.

3:42Now if you're wondering how the labels here

3:44appear only when I have a selection, that's

3:47actually a very subtle feature here in

3:49labeling where you only label the marks

3:51that are highlighted.

3:53And so when I pass a highlight action to

3:55this chart or to the other chart, it's

3:58going to

3:58show me the label of that particular point.

4:01So in this particular case, I need to click

4:03to highlight.

4:04But when I'm passing a highlight action, it

4:06gets enabled automatically.

4:08So that's the option that I'm leaving

4:09enabled.

4:10So if I go back to my visualization, I now

4:13have the full effect.

4:15And you've seen the steps required to

4:17reproduce that.

4:18I hope you can use this in your next

4:20visualization.

4:21And hopefully speak to you soon.

Rollup

Tim shows how to make a reference line track your cursor and mirror across two synced charts on a dashboard, using a combination of a highlight action and a recalculated minimum reference line — a neat trick for making cross-chart hover interactions feel connected.

Starts with a dashboard containing two charts with only standard tooltips, and no linked interaction between them. The goal is to make hovering on either chart draw a moving reference line on both.

The Breakdown

Create a two-way hover highlight action 0:40

Set up a dashboard highlight action running from both sheets to both sheets, so each chart can affect the other. Use hover (not click) as the trigger, and pass only the date/time field across rather than all fields.
Add a recalculated minimum reference line on each chart 1:35

On each sheet, add a reference line set to minimum with no line label, and crucially leave 'show recalculated line for highlighted or selected data points' ticked — this is what makes the line jump to wherever you're hovering rather than sitting static. You must do this on both charts for the mirrored effect to work.
Why hover (not click-select) keeps it to one point 2:21

Because the action is hover-based, you only ever have one point highlighted at a time, so the recalculated minimum stays tied to that single mark. A drag/click selection covering multiple points would instead show the minimum of the whole selection, breaking the tracking effect.
Hide the resting line behind a fixed axis 2:41

With the reference line always present at the true minimum when nothing is highlighted, fix the axis start date to match that minimum value so the line tucks in behind the axis edge and becomes invisible until you hover. Repeat this on both charts.
Auto-label only the highlighted mark 3:42

Enable the label option that shows labels only for highlighted or selected marks, rather than clicking to highlight manually. Because the highlight action is already firing on hover, this setting makes the point label appear automatically wherever the cursor is.

Worth Knowing

The 'show recalculated line for highlighted or selected data points' option is easy to miss but is the single setting that makes the line move at all.
Fixing the axis to the minimum date is what hides the line at rest — skip this and you're left with a static line sitting on the chart permanently.
This depends on using hover as the action trigger; switching to click/select changes the behaviour because multiple marks can then be selected at once.

Use It When

Reach for this when you want two related charts on a dashboard to feel connected as the user explores a shared axis, such as time, without needing a filter action or full cross-highlighting.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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