Add 2 Dimensions on Colour

Hey Tableau Community!

Have you ever tried to colour a view by two different fields, only for Tableau to remove the first field as soon as you add the second? Super frustrating - especially when building scatter plots.

A common use case is wanting to highlight:

• Top 20 customers by Sales

• Top 20 customers by Profit

• And the customers who appear in both groups

and to do this without creating complex calculations.

While Tableau only allows you to place one field directly on Colour at a time, there is a handy little hack you can use - as long as you’re working with dimensions.

How to Add Two Colours to the Marks Card 🎨

This trick uses the Detail shelf as a stepping stone to combine two dimensions into one colour legend.

Step 1: Create Your Dimensions

Make sure both fields you want to colour by are dimensions, for example:

• Top 20 Customers by Sales (Yes / No)

• Top 20 Customers by Profit (Yes / No)

Step 2: Add the First Dimension to Colour

Drag your first field (e.g. Top 20 Customers by Sales) onto Colour on the Marks card.

Your view will now be coloured by this field only.

Step 3: Add the Second Dimension to Detail

Next, drag your second field (e.g. Top 20 Customers by Profit) onto Detail on the Marks card. Nothing will change visually just yet - that’s expected!

Step 4: Change Detail to Colour

On the Marks card:

• Click the pill for Top 20 Customers by Profit

• Change it from Detail → Colour

And that’s it! Tableau now colours the marks using combinations of both dimensions.

What This Gives You

You’ll now see distinct colours for:

• Customers in the Top 20 by Sales only

• Customers in the Top 20 by Profit only

• Customers in both Top 20 lists

Perfect for quickly spotting your most valuable customers in a scatter plot 📊

Keyboard Hack Tip ⌨️

Here’s an even quicker shortcut: if you hold Shift while dragging your second dimension directly onto Colour, Tableau keeps the first dimension and creates the combination automatically.

No need to go through Detail first - a quick little keyboard trick that can save a step!

Best Practice Tip 💡

This technique is great for categorical flags like Top N, Yes/No, or In/Out logic!

I hope you find this trick useful! If you have any Tableau related questions feel free to let me know!