Tableau dashboards quick tip #2: how do I know what size my dashboard should be to fit in a story?

Here’s another little tip that is actually in the documentation, although perhaps not quite where you might expect, and besides, who reads that?

In Tableau you can create “Stories“. A story is basically a set of dashboards.

However, the default “physical” size of the dashboard part of a story is smaller than the default size of a dashboard. This leads to annoyances if you forget that and spend ages beautifully crafting your custom dashboard to fit a precise target size, only to find out that it won’t fit in the story. You can increase the size of the story such that your dashboard fits nicely – but if it gets too big then it may be hard to view on the devices your audience is likely to use.

So, how can you make sure that your dashboard is an appropriate size for your story?

Actually there’s a built in feature for that. Once you’ve started your story page, if you go back to your dashboard and look in the dashboard size section  you will see a new option appeared called “Fit to <<the name of your story>>” . Select that, and the dashboard will set itself to the perfect size for the story you started.

So, if you know you’re making a story and care what size it is, start off by creating a placeholder sheet for the story, sized as you wish. Only then start your new dashboard, and use the fit-to-story feature above to make sure it comes out the right size.