Tableau 9.2 was released this week, along with some amazing new features. One nice feature is “Match Mark Colour.” I believe it has all sorts of creative possibilities for your views. For example, above you can see I’ve got two labels on a bar chart. One shows the numbers, while the other, aligned left, shows the categories themselves, nicely using Tableau’s algorithm for matching useful colours.
!["Match Mark Colour" is found on the Font drop down in the Label menu.](https://gravyanecdote.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Match-Mark-Colour.png)
How do you make the labelled chart above?
To make this labelled bar example, I created a dual axis bar chart, duplicating the SUM([Number]) measure, and synchronizing the axes.
Both measures were labelled. One Measure was labelled with [Colour], aligned to the left. The other was labelled with [Number], aligned to the right. Finally, right click on the [Colour] dimension on the Row shelf and untick “Show Header”
![Setting up the dual axis](https://gravyanecdote.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2015-12-09_09-46-01-1024x432.png)
Simple! What other nice design tricks can you do with colour matching?
Caveats:
- Jonathan Drummey points out that Tableau’s colour-matching algorithm isn’t perfect, so check things look right before publishing.
- The shortest bar needs to be long enough to fit the label, otherwise you get wierd overlaps
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