Create visually compelling dual access combo charts in Tableau by layering a bar chart and a line chart on the same axis. Learn how to control chart type, synchronize axes, and ensure that your data remains clearly interpretable.
Key Insights
- To build a dual access chart in Tableau, place two measures (e.g., Sales and Profit) on the Rows shelf, assign a dimension like Subcategory to the Columns shelf, and set distinct chart types (e.g., bar and line) for each measure using the dropdown options.
- Ensure each chart type is explicitly set (not left as "Automatic") before enabling dual access, as Tableau may override formatting during chart combination if chart types are not manually chosen.
- Use the "Synchronize Axis" function to align the scales of both measures for accurate interpretation, and customize colors to clearly differentiate the visual elements—an approach taught in Tableau training by Noble Desktop.
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Dual access combo chart. So this is the instructions for this. I have a little screenshot that demonstrates what we're trying to accomplish here.
We want one chart on top of another. So very similar to what we did, I'm going to create a brand new sheet down at the bottom. I'll click the button for new sheet.
And so I want to add two measures to rows. You can choose whichever one you want. Maybe I'll do sales and profit.
Maybe I want to see sales and profit. So I'll take sales. I'll move it into rows.
I'll take profit. I'll move it into rows. Okay, so that's two measures.
I want to add subcategory. Subcategory is a good category to add. I'll choose subcategory.
I'll add that to columns. I'll do the standard, click the dropdown, choose entire view. I'm going to turn one chart into a bar chart and another into a line.
Or I could choose square, circle, or shape. So the top will become the bottom chart. So you want to be aware of that.
So let's see. I think I'd like to make this a line chart that's going to be on top of the bar chart. So I'm going to select profit.
And when I choose profit, instead of automatic, I'll click the dropdown here and choose line. And that is going to be my line chart. This will now be on top of the one above.
It's kind of the opposite of what you would think. You would think the one on top is the one that's going to be above the line, but it's the opposite. The other way that you can think of this is the pill to the right is going to be above the pill to the left.
This is where the right pill supersedes the left one. The chart that is on the bottom is the one that's going to be on top of the one above. I might actually want to change the color of this so I can make it stand out.
I'm going to go here and make it sort of like orange. Maybe I'll also play around with the size, make it thicker, because I think it's going to look better to have the line on top of the bar rather than the bar on top of the line. So the field that is on the right represents the one on the bottom is the one that's going to be on top of the field that's on the left, which is sales.
So another way of saying it is profit will be on top of sales, because profit is ahead. You won't know until we actually combine the charts, and then maybe you'll get a sense of what I mean by the one on the right is on top of the one on the left. So that's our next step.
We're getting pretty close to it. Let me resize this. I'm going to go back to our instructions.
So I'm going to select the second measure, and from its menu, you're going to choose dual access. Before I do that, I'm going to go to sum of sales, and I don't want this to be automatic. I like the bar, and I'd like it to remain a bar chart.
So I'm going to click the dropdown here and choose bar. This is essential. If you leave this as automatic, then Tableau may change the bar chart to another type.
So if you're doing a dual access, it's very important that you choose something other than automatic for both charts. So I just did that. This is a line.
Sales is a bar. But wait, if you change it to automatic, isn't it already a bar? I know, but when you combine them, then Tableau may change this chart automatically. So you want to make sure this is set up as a bar.
The reason I'm emphasizing this is because this is going to come up in a later exercise. And when you run into trouble, you're going to remember I told you, you have to select something other than automatic for the two charts that you have. So now that I've done that, now we're going to do the part that's different than a multi-chart.
Right now, this is just like the multi-chart we worked on here. You'll see there's no difference, except you have the line above. So here's where the magic happens.
If you click the dropdown for Sum of Profit, you're going to have an option called Dual Access. Now, before I click on it, just to emphasize this, this is probably going into the minutia of detail. If you click on Sales, you will not find that.
That's why the pill on the right supersedes the one on the left. And so you're not going to have the option to select Dual Access from this. So if you're trying to do this and you're not seeing it, seeing Dual Access, it's because you're in the wrong pill.
You have to be on the one on the right, that supersedes. So I'm going to go over here and choose Dual Access and just like that. Now, it changes color too.
So it probably would have been better for me to change the color afterwards. Why? Because the color is automatic and it just automatically changed to something else. But this is how you would create a Dual Access chart.
You could always go back in and change the color. I'm going to go back here. I'll choose Edit Colors.
I'll choose something kind of blue. As you know, I want to do Sales blue. Then I want to do this and I'm going to make this, I think I made it green.
All right, I'll try blue and green again. I'll click OK. There is another potential issue with this and some of you may already be noticing this.
My values here are 300K and my values here are 6,000. Maybe quantity doesn't work really well with the sales here. So I'm going to go back and choose, well, I don't even have to drag this, I forget.
I can just take Profit and drag it on top, there we go. So this is a little bit better. One of the things you should know when you're combining charts this way is you do have an option when you go to one of the accesses to right-click and choose an option called Synchronize Access.
It'll do its best to synchronize the values for both access. So I'll choose Synchronize Access and these now are more in alignment with each other. I have 300K on the left, 300K on the right.
So something very important when you do dual access, you want to make sure the values are comparatively the same. And so for this particular chart, it works better to use Profit. If I use Quantity, you would hardly even see the line.
It would be almost like a flat line at the bottom. So you can swap out any of the measures for a different chart. Be careful not to set all to automatic or it'll overwrite your individual choices.
You can move quantity, yes, we did that. You can take sales and drop it into the color or the color of the bar if you want different colors. Clicking on the color button can allow you to customize the color and help you tell your story.
So we're gonna call this sheet Dual Access and we're gonna create a new sheet and we'll take a look at a different type of chart. So I'll go and rename and I'm gonna call this Dual Access.