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1. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Michael Cristiani Aug 20, 2009 9:58 AM (in response to . CMuser)1 of 1 people found this helpfulChristine,
Not sure if this is what you want, but when you are in a Dashboard, you can select Format | Dashboard. One of the sections in the formatting panel there is Text Objects. You can format Font, Alignment, Shading, and Border. Tableau will apply your settings here to all Text Objects, including any you add after the fact. You should play with adding, removing, changing various settings, etc., in this panel section to see how it impacts existing and locally formatted Text Objects. I couldn't find anything specific in the Online Help about this, but maybe a Tableauian will see this and add some more info.
Independently, in this formatting panel, you can format other aspects of the Dashboard, including Shading and Title objects.
Does this help?
MANY BLESSINGS!
Peace and All Good!
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2. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
. CMuser Aug 20, 2009 4:24 PM (in response to . CMuser)Hi Michael:
great to see your post - do you ever *not* know something about Tableau?? :) Thanks for the tip on setting global formatting defaults for text objects. That is handy. Now I am a little greedy: I have a page with several text objects - not all of which share the same formatting. It would be nice to pick a group of text objects and set the format for those collectively. Any thoughts?
Christine Muser
CyCom Solutions, Inc.
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3. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
James BakerSep 2, 2009 10:11 AM (in response to . CMuser)
Can't do that right now, as far as I know. :) Sorry
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4. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Matt Shoemaker May 5, 2011 1:27 PM (in response to . CMuser)I second this one. I have a dashboard with 22 text tables and it would be nice to be able to select several of them at once for formatting the text color, size, and alignment.
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5. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Joe Mako May 5, 2011 1:50 PM (in response to . CMuser)I agree Matt. What I would like to see that would resolve our situation is an expansion on the menu option:
Format->Workbook Theme
Even if it is a XML file that I have to create, like custom color pallets, it would be a great addition.
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6. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Matt Shoemaker May 5, 2011 3:34 PM (in response to . CMuser)Yes, that would be a big time-saver if we could specify formats for all elements and save them as reusable custom themes. Ideally this could be specified at the worksheet, dashboard, workbook, and application levels.
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7. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Andy CotgreaveMay 6, 2011 1:22 AM (in response to . CMuser)
Yes - this kind of thing would be a much nicer addition. Worksheet/workbook themes/templates would be fantastic.
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8. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Michelle Lund Nov 22, 2011 6:43 PM (in response to . CMuser)To the Tableau team: there seem to be multiple threads going back a number of years asking for a way to apply formatting across sheets or to make it simpler to set up templates, but nothing appears to have happened yet. Is there a concerted effort being make to find a way to do this? If not, is it because it is too complex to do so, or is it because it isn't perceived to be a high-priority item?
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9. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
. CMuser Nov 23, 2011 8:36 AM (in response to . CMuser)Michelle,
thank you for adding your voice to this.
After having worked with Tableau for some time I'm finding that this issue takes much more of my time that I think it should. Some of the dashboards I create contain 30 or more sheets - that's a lot of manual formatting and making sure that everything looks the same. For now I have resorted to creating one dashboard sheet as a "template" so to speak, then I copy it and replace the content (repeat for each subsequent dashboard sheet). I employ a similar approach to creating individual vizes. This saves a little bit of time since I don't have to recreate headers and footers each time, but it still leaves me with replacing and resizing vizes and making sure that any text boxes I add for comments have the same look and feel. I'd much rather spend my billable time on performing analysis than making things "look nice" for the client.
From reading other forum posts I realize that there is some complexity involved here. Joe Mako's suggestion about creating custom XML files as themes seems like a really worthwhile idea to pursue - and I'd be happy to be a beta tester.
One more suggestion: there are plenty of common dashboard layouts like 1x2, 2x1, 2x2 or 2x3 - there ought to be a way to create a handful of standard containers into which we could place our vizes. These won't meet every need, but it would be a start. No?
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10. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
James BakerNov 23, 2011 12:56 PM (in response to . CMuser)
Michelle, we gather and aggregate customer feedback and requests from a variety of sources, including the forums. This feedback plays a large role when we're planning out the features and fixes for each development cycle. It is Tableau's policy not to comment on things that it hasn't done-and-released yet, so I can't say if or when we will implement something that addresses the consensus in this particular thread. I will however say that there is general sympathy amongst the people I know in Tableau engineering with the frustrations expressed in this and many other format-related threads/discussions. So I can say "it's on the list", but it is indeed a complex topic that we want to be careful to get right when we do invest time in this area. There are no significant relevant changes in the in-beta 7.0 product. So yes, it hasn't made the cut yet -- but things on the list tend to move upwards, as we address other features. There are hundreds of things on "the list" and I can't even know exactly where this falls, but please do know that we are listening and that our mission statement is "to help people see and understand their data" rather than "to make people spend lots of time fiddling with formatting issues".
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11. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Michelle Lund Nov 23, 2011 4:44 PM (in response to . CMuser)Thanks for your great response, James - it helps me to understand things better. Tableau is an amazing program, and I love it. This is just an area that would make a huge difference to customers if we could find a way to fix it.
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12. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
Matt Shoemaker Nov 28, 2011 3:37 PM (in response to . CMuser)One of my favorite implementations of this is the Excel format painter with single click (one-time paint) and double-click (format multiple items) functionality. It's a very nice interface.
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13. Re: Format multiple text fields on a dashboard
John Munoz Apr 16, 2018 6:16 PM (in response to Michael Cristiani)Thanks Michael, great tip!