Tableau Highlight Table helps you to compare the categorical data using colors. In this article, we will show you how to Create a Highlight Table in Tableau with an example.
For Tableau Highlight Table demo, we are going to use the World Indicators Data Source.
Highlight Table in Tableau Example
To create a Highlight Table First, Drag and Drop the Country field from Dimension Region to Rows Shelf. Once you drag them, Text Label will generate, as shown below.
Next, Drag and Drop Year from Dimensions Region to Columns Shelf.
Next, drag and drop the Mobile Phone Usage field from Measures Region to Color field present in Marks Shelf. From the below screenshot, you can see the Highlight table.
Let me change the Color adjustment field position
Change Colors of a Highlight Table in Tableau
The above screenshot is showing the Tableau Highlight table with default colors. However, you have an option to change the default colors.
To do so, click the drop-down menu beside the SUM(Mobile Phone Users) colour legend, or right-click on the Color bar. Both of them will open the below-shown context menu. From that, please select the Edit Colors… option
Selecting the Edit Colors… option opens the following window. And you can see, it has selected the Automatic pallet as the color schema.
Click the drop-down arrow under the Palette and select the color as per your requirement. For now, we are choosing Red-Green-Gold Diverging.
By clicking the Advanced button, you can specify the Start Point, End Point, and Center as well.
Now you can see the Tableau Highlight table with different color combinations. Though, it looks good to let me Exclude years from 2000 to 2005 because we don’t have much data to display over that period.
From the below screenshot, you can see, we applied a filter on the year filed. Please refer to the filter concept to understand the same.
Highlighting any block will show you the information at that particular point.
Change the Block size of a Highlight Table
Instead of filling the complete block with colors we can adjust the size. To do so, drag the Total Population from Measures Region to Size field in a Marks Shelf.
As you can see from the below screenshot, the size of each block is displayed based on the population.
Let me increase the Size
Selecting any specific block will show you the information at that particular point.
By placing the Mobile Phone Usage Measure in the Text label will convert the highlight Table into a Normal Table with colors.
Create a Tableau Highlight Table using Show Me
The Show Me window show you the list of available charts that you can make using Measures and Dimension fields. Let me select the Highlight Table
Now you can see the Tableau Highlight Table that was created by the Show Me
