#WOW2026 | Week 2 | Can you create a fake Viz in Tooltip?

/ Tableau, Workout Wednesday / By

Introduction

Welcome back to #WOW2026! Thank you all for your continued support, and for bearing with us while we carried out some maintenance on the website.

For the first challenge of the year, I’m asking you to recreate a technique that was originally introduced way back in 2010, and re-shared during a ‘tips and tricks’ battle at #DataFam Europe in London last December. It’s the original “Viz in Tooltip” by the legendary Andy Cotgreave.

The VIT functionality introduced in 2017 can sometimes be slow to render – this technique is much much faster, but doesn’t suit all circumstances. While the idea has been around for a long time, it wasn’t anything I’d actually tried myself, so, as with most challenges I set, it gave me the opportunity to try it out. And it’s always worth having the concept in your ‘toolbox’. Enjoy!

Click to open in Tableau Public

Requirements

  • Size 1000×800
  • 1 sheet
  • Create a filled map showing Sales (colour) by State for the US only
  • Add a fake Viz in Tooltip that displays the % Sales per Segment in each state as a bar chart
    • The tooltip should not use the core functionality where another sheet is inserted into the tooltip 
    • Ideally the label, bar and % value per Segment should display on a single line 
    • Hint : Unicode characters U+2588 █ and U+258C ▌will be your friends
  • Style / format as you wish

Dataset

The challenge uses Superstore 2025 data, but any version will suffice.  You can find the data on Data.World.

Attribute

When you publish your solution on Tableau Public make sure to take the time and include a link to the original inspiration.  Also include the hashtag #WOW2026 in your description to make it searchable!

Share

After you finish your workout, share on Twitter and/or LinkedIn using the hashtag #WOW2026 #Tableau and tag @WorkoutWednsday

Solution

Interactive