How do the properties in the Marks card vary based on the Mark type selected (or present in the Marks card) in Tableau Desktop?

Typical conversion on how the properties in the Marks card vary in Tableau Desktop

The Marks card is a key element for visual analysis in Tableau.
We can consider the Marks card as the Heart of any visualization that we build in Tableau.

As we drag fields to different properties in the Marks card, we can add context and detail to the marks in the view.
We use the Marks card to set the mark type, and to encode the data with color, size, shape, text, and detail.

NOTE: For this article Tableau Version 2024.1.1 (Professional Edition) is used.

Changing the Marks Card Properties

There are two basic methods to change the properties in the Marks card:

Method-I: By manually changing the Marks card.
To change the mark type on the Marks card, we need to click the Mark Type drop-down and select an option from the list.

Manually changing the Marks Type

Method-II: Based on the inner fields on the Rows and Columns shelves

In the below example the Bar mark type is selected when there is a dimension and a measure as inner fields on Rows and Columns shelves respectively.

Bar mark type is automatically selected

In the below example the Line mark type is selected when there is a date field and a measure as the inner fields on the Columns and Rows shelves respectively.

Line mark type is automatically selected and Path property is added

When the Marks card drop-down menu is set to Automatic, Tableau automatically selects the best mark type for the data view.
The mark type that is automatically selected is determined by the inner fields on the Rows and Columns shelves.
The icon in the Marks card drop-down menu indicates which type of mark was automatically selected.

When the Marks card drop-down menu is set to Automatic the Marks card will have only 5 properties namely: Color, Size & Text in the 1st Row and Detail & Tooltip in the 2nd Row

By default the Automatic Marks type is selected

NOTE: The above is applicable even when the Mark Type is selected as Bar, Area, Square, Circle, Text, Map, Gantt Bar, Density.

A 6th property will be added to the Marks card in the 2nd Row when we change the Mark Type from the drop-down list.

For a Line Mark Type and Polygon Mark Type a Path property will be added.

Line Mark Type will add a Path property

Polygon Mark Type will also add the Path property

For a Shape Mark Type a Shape property will be added.

Shape Mark Type will add a Shape property

For a Pie Mark Type an Angle property will be added.

Pie Mark Type will add an Angle property

When does the Text property change to the Label property in Marks card?

By default, when we open a worksheet in Tableau the 3rd Property in the 1st row of the Marks card is Text.

If the Mark type is Text (including Automatic text), the label shelf will say Text instead of Label.

If the Mark type is Text (including Automatic text), the label shelf will say Text instead of Label

For a standard Text table view of Sub-Category Vs Sales, the 3rd Property in the 1st row of the Marks card is still Text.

For a Text Table also the property is still Text

If we drag and drop the SUM(Sales) from Text of Marks card to the Columns shelf.

Now the 3rd Property in the 1st row of the Marks card is Label since the Mark type has changed to Bar.

For a Bar chart the property is changed to Label

NOTE: This is just one example where there are changes in the properties of the Marks card based on the inner fields on the Rows and Columns shelves.

I hope this article is useful for all Tableau users especially for anyone just starting their Tableau journey!!!