Waffle Chart

The Waffle Chart extension visualizes data as a grid of icons, where each cell represents a portion of the whole. It is perfect for displaying completion rates, KPIs, and demographic proportions in a visually engaging way.

Data Requirements

To use this extension effectively, your Tableau worksheet should include:

• 1 Dimension: Defines the categories (e.g., Region, Segment, Status).
• 1 Measure: Defines the values to be aggregated (e.g., Sales, Profit, Count).

Format Extension

The Format Extension interface is the control panel for the Waffle Chart. It is designed exclusively for the dashboard developer and is not visible to the end-user viewing the final report.

This tool allows you to customize every aspect of the visualization, enabling you to:

• Customize Layout: Define grid dimensions, cell shapes, and spacing.
• Style Elements: Apply color palettes and adjust opacity.
• Enhance Context: Configure dynamic tooltips and flexible legends.

General Settings

Configure the structure and appearance of the grid to match your dashboard's design.

Shape

Select the geometric shape for the grid cells. This affects the visual style of the chart.

• Rectangle: Cells fill the available space in the grid, adapting to the container's aspect ratio.
• Square: Forces each cell to be a perfect square (1:1 ratio).
• Circle: Renders each cell as a circle.

Grid Dimensions

Define the grid layout by specifying the number of rows (r) and columns (l). The product of these two values determines the Total Capacity (total number of cells).

• Rows (r): Number of cells vertically.
• Columns (l): Number of cells horizontally.
• Capacity: The total number of units the grid represents (usually 100 for percentages).

Grid Size & Inner Space

Fine-tune the density of the chart:

• Grid Size: Scales the entire grid inside the container (percentage). Lower values create more whitespace around the grid.
• Inner Space: Controls the gap between adjacent cells (percentage). Increasing this value separates the cells more distinctly.

Background Color

Set the chart background color. This is useful when placing the waffle chart on a colored dashboard container or when you want a fixed backdrop behind the cells.

Color Settings

Manage how data categories are colored.

Palette Selection

Choose from standard Tableau palettes and many additional palettes shipped with the extension (including classic Tableau variants and multi-hue palettes). The dialog uses a dropdown selector with an inline preview of the currently selected palette.

Custom Colors Per Category

Custom colors are always available in v2. The dialog provides one color picker per category, letting you override the selected palette to match brand guidelines or accessibility requirements.

• Live preview: Picking a new color updates the chart instantly through the live preview messaging.
• Data-aware: The list follows the categories captured when the dialog opens; refresh the dialog after filtering to see new members.
• Default colors (important): When no override exists, default category colors are assigned by sorting categories alphabetically and mapping them to the palette colors (cycling if needed).
• Quick apply: Click a category row to select it (the first row is auto-selected), then click a swatch in the Pick from palette strip to apply that color to the selected category.
• Palette switching behavior: Changing the palette does not automatically recolor existing categories; the dialog preserves what you already see (it snapshots current colors before switching). To fully revert to defaults, use Reset.

Opacity

Adjust the global opacity of the chart cells. This is useful when overlaying the chart on background images or maps.

Legend Configuration

The legend explains the color coding of the chart. You have full control over its placement and content.

Position

Determines where the legend is placed relative to the chart. Use Show Legend in the dialog to enable/disable it.

• Top / Bottom: Places the legend above or below the chart.
• Left / Right: Places the legend to the side of the chart.

Legend Controls

The Legend tab also includes auxiliary switches to match different UX expectations.

• Show/Hide Legend: Adds a button overlay so viewers can collapse or re-open the legend without re-entering the dialog.
• Show color icon: Toggles the colored swatch displayed next to each label—useful when you prefer textual legends only.

Content Template

Customize the text displayed for each legend item using a rich text editor. You can combine static text with dynamic placeholders:

• {category} - The name of the dimension member.
• {measureName} - The name of the measure being aggregated.
• {value} - The raw value of the measure.
• {percentage} - The calculated percentage of the total.

Tooltip

Tooltips provide additional context when a user hovers over the grid cells.

Activation

Control whether the tooltip is injected at runtime and how its background behaves.

• Show tooltip on hover: Master switch to enable or disable the tooltip block entirely.
• Background color: Choose a fixed tooltip background color.
• Match category color (background): When enabled, each tooltip background inherits the hovered category color.

Template Editor

The tooltip content is driven by a rich text editor. Use the toolbar to insert placeholders, format text, and match the visual language of your dashboard.

• Dynamic placeholders: Insert {category}, {measureName}, {value}, or {percentage} directly from the toolbar.
• Text color: Choose a fixed color or enable Match color to use the hovered category color.
• Decimals: Use Val. Dec and Pct. Dec to control decimal places for {value} and {percentage}.
• HTML support: The editor accepts basic inline HTML (line breaks, bold tags, lists) for richer layouts and sanitizes content for safety.

Data Warnings

Toggle Show warning for negative values to surface a badge on the visualization whenever the underlying data contains negative numbers.