UPDATE: I’ve made an additional post highlighting some common ways to fix empty spaces in Tableau’s layout containers: Fixing Empty Spaces in Tableau’s Layout Containers: Part Two
If you’ve been using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public to design workbooks, there’s an issue you most likely have run into while configuring layouts. In fact, there are several posts in the Tableau Community Forums trying to get an answer to this exact problem. All remain unanswered. Post one, post two, post three. As a note, the last version I’ve used as of this post is 2020.1 and the issue was still present on certain dashboards.
Fortunately, I have a solution for you!
To preface this solution, it seems as if this is actually a bug in Tableau, and this is only a workaround to that bug. Hopefully in the near future this is fixed and this post becomes irrelevant!
The Problem
You have a horizontal or vertical layout container. Your worksheets for the container are configured to one of the proper dynamic sizing options (fit height, fit width, or entire view). Yet when you put these worksheets inside of the container, there is always a little empty space at the end of the container.
It looks like a little grayed out area with diagonal slashes through it. Like this area highlighted in red (this photo was borrowed from the first linked Community post above):
The Solution
To preface, before trying the below solution, you should explore the easier and more common fixes first. Most of the time the common fixes cover some small configuration issue that can cause this blank space to appear. These common fixes are:
- Make sure you’ve configured the worksheets to fit automatically with either Fit Width, Fit Height, or Entire View
- Clear any manual sizing for the worksheet
- Remove the sheet and add it again
If none of those work, there is a another solution. This involves a little bit of switching back and forth. Although you probably have the worksheets configured to one of the dynamic options, Tableau is actually using the manual sizing of your axis to determine the maximum size the worksheet will take on when dropped in your container.
So what does this mean? This means you’ll have to do the following in order for your worksheet to fill the entire container.
- Go back to the worksheet(s) you want to fill the container with
- Toggle the worksheet fit to “Standard”
- Manually size the x-axis (if it’s in a horizontal container) or y-axis (if it’s in a vertical container) to be larger than the container you’re dropping it in
- Toggle the worksheet fit back to one of the dynamic options (Fit Width, Fit Height, or Entire View)
- Ta-da, go back to the dashboard and view your container. The blank space should be gone
As a note, this sizing issue usually only happens when discrete dimensions are on the axis that determines the container fit (x-axis for horizontal and y-axis for vertical). I have not seen it happen in circumstances outside of that, but the fix should be the same. But what if the sizing issue is happening in containers that only have filters, parameters, legends, etc.? Let’s cover it in the next section.
A Related Problem and Solution: Containers with Filters, Parameters, and Other Static Things
So what if this same sizing issue is happening with a container that just hold filters, parameters, legends, or other more statically-sized elements?
The recommended action here is to manually set the height or width of the element to equal the height or width of the container. You can do this by clicking on the drop down arrow for the element, then clicking on “Edit Width” or “Edit Height”. Make sure to use the Layout tab to first find the size of the container you’re trying to fill.
1. Using the layout tab, select the target horizontal or vertical container you’d like to fill.
2. Click on the dropdown for the element you are trying to make fit the entire container.
3. Set the pixel value equivalent to the height or width of the container you are trying to fill completely.
That’s all there is to it! Let me know if you found this useful or if this didn’t solve the issue for you.
Check out Part Two here (common fixes for empty spaces): Fixing Empty Spaces in Tableau’s Layout Containers: Part Two