Tableau Course
Story Points
A Tableau Story is a sequence of worksheets and dashboards assembled into a guided narrative. Where a dashboard lets viewers explore data freely, a Story controls the sequence — walking the viewer through a series of insights in the order the author intends, like a slide deck that lives inside the data.
Stories vs Dashboards vs Worksheets
| Type | Purpose | Viewer Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Worksheet | Answers one specific analytical question with a single chart | Sees one chart, can interact with marks and tooltips |
| Dashboard | Answers a primary question with supporting context — multiple charts in one view | Explores freely — clicks, filters, and interacts with all charts simultaneously |
| Story | Walks the viewer through a sequence of findings — each step builds on the last | Follows a guided path — navigates forward and back through story points |
Creating a New Story
A Story is created from the bottom tab bar — the same place as new worksheets and dashboards. Click the book icon (to the right of the dashboard icon) or go to Story → New Story from the menu. Tableau opens the Story canvas with a left panel listing all available worksheets and dashboards to use as story points.
Adding and Arranging Story Points
Each story point is one slide in the sequence. To add a story point, click the + button in the navigator strip — a blank story point is created to the right of the current one. Then drag any worksheet or dashboard from the Story panel onto the canvas to populate it.
A single worksheet or dashboard can be used in multiple story points. This is one of the most powerful features of Stories — you can use the same dashboard twice, once with a filter applied and once without, to show a before-and-after comparison. Each story point captures its own state of the view, including any filters, highlights, and annotations applied to it.
Story Point States — Blank, Saved, and Updated
Each story point exists in one of three states that are visible in the navigator strip:
Annotations on Story Points
Annotations add explanatory text directly on top of the chart inside a story point — pointing to a specific mark, a specific point in space, or a specific area. They are more precise than captions because they sit right next to the data they are describing.
To add an annotation: right-click on the chart inside the story point canvas → Annotate → choose Mark, Point, or Area. A text box appears that you can move and resize. Annotations are saved per story point — the same chart can have different annotations on different story points.
| Annotation Type | Anchors To | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Mark | A specific data mark — moves with the mark if data changes | Calling out an outlier, a peak, or a specific customer or product |
| Point | A fixed X/Y coordinate on the chart axes — stays in place regardless of data | Marking a threshold, a target line, or a date of a business event |
| Area | A rectangular region on the view — highlights a zone rather than a single point | Drawing attention to a period, a cluster of marks, or a range of values |
A Well-Structured Story — Example Sequence
Navigator Style Options
The navigator strip — the row of tabs at the top of the Story — can be styled to match the presentation context. Go to Story → Format Story to access navigator style options.
| Style | Appearance and Use |
|---|---|
| Caption boxes | The default — rectangular tabs showing caption text. Best when captions are short and descriptive. |
| Numbers | Shows step numbers (1, 2, 3…) instead of caption text. Clean for long stories where captions would be crowded. |
| Dots | Small circular indicators. Minimal — good for presentation mode where the story navigates automatically. |
| Arrows only | Just previous/next arrows, no step indicators. Used when the story is fully linear and step count does not matter. |
The most important thing to understand about Stories is that they are not a replacement for a dashboard — they are a complement. A dashboard is the right tool when the viewer needs to explore freely. A Story is the right tool when you need to control the narrative for a senior audience. Write captions as insights, not descriptions: "South declining for second quarter" tells the viewer what to think. "Regional View" tells them nothing they cannot already see from the chart.
Practice Questions
1. A Story needs to show the same executive dashboard three times — once unfiltered, once filtered to the West region, and once filtered to Technology only. How is this achieved without building three separate dashboards?
2. A story point shows a scatter plot and you want to add a text note anchored to a specific outlier customer mark. Which annotation type is correct and why?
3. A story point caption reads "Regional Sales Chart". What is wrong with this caption and how should it be rewritten?
Quiz
1. Two story points use the same dashboard. Story point 2 has a Region filter for South applied. Story point 1 has no filters. When the viewer navigates back to story point 1, the South filter is gone. What feature of Stories makes this possible?
2. A story point shows a trend line and you want to annotate a specific date on the X axis where a business event occurred — the annotation should stay at that date position even if the data is refreshed. Which annotation type is correct?
3. A senior leadership team needs a presentation of Q3 findings in a specific sequence — starting with the headline result, then drilling into regional performance, then ending with recommendations. Should this be built as a Story or a Dashboard, and why?
Next up — Lesson 45: Layout and Formatting — controlling fonts, borders, shading, gridlines, and tooltips to create polished professional views.