Hey Darin,

First an explanation: Tableau Server renders certain items on the server, and to reduce stress, other items by the browser (client-side). I.e. Chrome is responsible for rendering certain items in a view while the server renders others. The link you posted discusses how to turn-off client side rendering and the effects. According to the article server-side rendering occurs for:

• Polygons, custom shapes, and the page history feature: If a view uses polygons, custom shapes, or the page history feature, server-side rendering is performed, even if client-side rendering is otherwise enabled.

Especially less complex views will be rendered mostly by the browser.

By using the URL parameter, you are turning off client-side rendering which is forcing the entire view to be rendered by the server. This can sometimes take longer and can have an exponential affect if being loaded many times by many different users. However, many users use server-side rendering without issue.

Now for the issue: each browser has its own way of rendering certain fonts, shapes, etc. What you're seeing is Chrome's interpretation of the view. In general, Tableau tries to make everything work exactly the same on all browsers (and usually it does) but there are sometimes unavoidable tweaks that occur to browsers that change how they render Tableau visualizations (and even just different websites).

Internet Explorer 8 does not allow for client-side rendering therefore everything you see if being rendered by the server which is why there is no issue.

I hope this explanation helps!

-Diego

Hey Darin,

Have you considered giving out the URL with  the?:render=false URL parameter already in the link? Even just an email blast saying it may look off if they don't use that specific link could help.

Also, I should clarify that the error could occur with any modern browser (including any Internet Explorer version after 8.0).

-Diego

Happy to help Darin!

You could also post a note to the view as well!

So ?:render=false definitely works, is there anyway to force that in the URL?  I am in a position where they will enter via the normal URL and I cannot change it.

Hi Travis!

You could set it using Tableau Server Tabadmin set command.

tabadmin set vizqlserver.browser.render false will turn it off.

we discuss it at http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/help.htm#browser_rendering.htm

Since whether client vs server rendering is used is based on a Threshold Calculation.....one thing you could try in order to force a specific dashboard to render server-side is to including a hidden sheet, so that the total marks on the dashboard is greater than 5000 (approx).

I.e. create a sheet with more than 5000 marks, add it into dashboard with the size set to 1x1 to hide it, and in theory the dash should now render server side.

Keep in mind though, there's likely to be a performance hit when doing this.

Edit: I was just reading Diego's post, it would probably be less of a performance impact to just add a Polygons/custom shape/page history to the hidden sheet (instead of 5000 odd marks)

Does it also apply to IE10? Is client-side rendering also off for IE10? Thanks.

Kanan, client-side rendering is supported in IE 9.0 and higher.