Summary

The goal of formatting is to increase effective communication of the data at hand. Always consider the audience, setting, mode, mood, and consistency as you work through the iterative process of formatting. Look for formatting that adds value to your visualization and avoid useless clutter.

We covered quite a few options for formatting – from fonts, colors, lines, and more at the workbook level to formatting individual sheets and fields. We discussed how to customize formatting for numbers, dates, and null values and how to use these techniques to bring value to your visualizations.

With an understanding of how formatting works in Tableau, you'll have the ability to refine the visualizations that you created in discovery and analysis into incredibly effective communication of your data story.

In the next chapter, we'll look at how this all comes together on dashboards.