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Tableau Tip: Creating a Relative Axis

Updated: May 20, 2022

Creating an axis based on a measure that is not in the view


One of our clients wanted to see their finance and operations metrics over time. This included differentiating between Raw Production and Clean Production. The data had already been pulled and published to Tableau Online. The dashboard design was also set where each metric would be visualized in its own “card.” The first iteration looked like this: (data randomized to protect confidentiality)



The Problems:
  • The axes aren’t uniform, making the Clean Production look just as high as the RAW Production upon first glance

  • The bar graphs must be in two separate sheets to achieve the appropriate spacing for the design

  • We can’t manipulate or pivot the data structure because it’s a Tableau Online live connection

Trust me, I know Tableau has some out of the box, easy ways to partially get there, like:

1. Putting Measure Names and Measure Values on rows (or columns) and editing the axis to have a Uniform axis range for all rows or columns



2. Putting Measure Names on columns and Measure Values on rows (or vise versa) where they are represented on one axis that’s automatically unified