Importance of Right-click in Tableau Desktop
There may be many occasions when we may not be aware of what action we can perform on a specific feature, item, asset, object etc. in Tableau Desktop. If we need to get a quick idea of the various actions or options that can be carried out for a specific item we can just Right-click it.
How to use the Right-click option?
For the specific item we need to use the Right-click of the mouse on a Windows computer.
NOTE: On a Mac, a right-click is called a secondary click or Control-click.
Control-click an item (such the desktop, icons or files) using the keyboard and mouse or trackpad to open shortcut menus.
What happens if we Right-click in Tableau Desktop?
If we Right-click an appropriate item, e.g: a field in the Data Pane field, the corresponding Context Menu will be displayed.
NOTE: The Context Menu that appears depends on the item type, the tab opened, and other circumstances.
Typical Use Case of Right-click in Tableau Desktop
One typical use case might be that we want to carry out formatting for a view. We just need to Right-click the area of the view that requires formatting e.g: View itself, Header in the View, Mark in the View, Axis in the View etc. and from the Context Menu that appears click on Format.
We will be going through the various common areas where Right-click is used in Tableau Desktop in the next section.
Common areas where we can use Right-click in Tableau Desktop
Although there are multiple areas where the Right-click method can be used in Tableau Desktop we will be going through only the most often or most commonly used areas.
Given below are the common areas where the Right-click method are used:
1. Connections in the Left Pane of the Data Source Page
2. Tables in Canvas of the Data Source Page
3. Data Grid in the Data Source Page
4. Metadata Grid in the Data Source Page
5. Worksheet Name
6. Fields in Data Pane
7. Worksheet Title
8. Field Label
9. Marks Card
10. Measure Values Shelf
11. Filters Shelf
12. Pages Shelf
13. Inside a View
14. Header in a View
15. Axis/Axes in a View
16. Mark in a View
17. Dashboard Pane > Sheets
18. Story Pane > Sheets
19. Story Pane > Dashboard
20. Dashboard Title
21. Story Title
22. Data Source Name
As already mentioned this article has just scratched the surface of the usage of Right-click in Tableau Desktop and with more experience users will be able to identify the advanced uses of the Right-click method.
So one major takeaway from this article should be that WHEN IN DOUBT ABOUT ANY ITEM IN TABLEAU JUST TRY AND RIGHT-CLICK IT!!!
I hope this article is useful for all Tableau users especially anyone who is new to Tableau!!!
