Tableau Software : Express your data artistry with transparent worksheets in Tableau

Transparent worksheets open up a lot of exciting possibilities to express your creativity. Here are some other helpful tips to make the most of this feature:

Data first. Worksheet transparency enables you to create beautiful, stunning dashboards. However, keep in mind that the subject of your data should always drive the formatting and analytical usefulness and readability should always come first. When choosing background images, ensure that those images aren't obscuring axes, labels, or marks. For starters, stick with visually simpler background images with long stretches of uniform color like a blue sky, the sea, etc.

Layering worksheets. Advanced authors may want to create layered vizzes by stacking multiple worksheets. It's a compelling way to reveal insights by combining several visualizations into a single view. If you do, keep in mind that that feature makes the background transparent. It doesn't auto-align and synchronize axes across layered worksheets.

Polishing lines. To polish vizzes, you can remove some of the lines on your dashboard (row dividers, grid lines, etc). Alternatively, you can also change the line color to optimize their contrast with respect to the background image. You can make these changes in the Formatting pane.

Adding background images. To add a background image, go to the bottom of the Dashboard pane, set the layout mode to Tiled. Next, double click on the image object and choose an image. Use the fit and center options to position your image. To eliminate white padding around the image, switch to the Layout pane and set the outer padding to zero pixels. Be mindful that very large images might impact dashboard load times when viewed from Tableau Server.

Captions & Upgrade. In some cases, when you upgrade to Tableau 2018.3, you may notice a change in your existing dashboards. In floated worksheets where captions are above an image or other item, the caption might be set to transparent. If you'd like to override this change you can always manually change the caption background to opaque.