Formatting PDF Output from Tableau

Owned by Cortlandt _
Last updated: May 25, 2023
2 min read

Problem.

PDF output from Tableau is missing column headers, headings or other parts of the report or dashboard.
This issue can occur with Tableau Web Server, Tableau Desktop, from Subscriptions and from DSA AD or DSA Cloud AD.

Solutions.

This usually is seen when the report or dashboard is too wide for normal page size output. The solution is a combination of 1) making the page less wide by adjusting the width of columns and/or 2} using PDF settings to produce wider output.

PDF formatting Options

PDF formatting options are available for PDF’s exported from Tableau Web Server, Tableau Desktop and from later versions of DSA AD or DSA Cloud AD.

  • Landscape

  • Width

  • Pagesize (Pagesize options include: unspecified, letter, legal, a3 )

See the Options column in Report & Distribution Commands for more about the PDF output options supported by Tableau.

Adjusting Report Column Widths

In many cases reports and dashboards can be made narrower by adjusting the width of columns.

  • Using Tableau Desktop to make these find adjustments is advised.

  • Adjust column widths by hand.

  • Use the Standard fit option.

--pagelayout landscape --pagesize unspecified

The PDF formatting options --pagelayout landscape --pagesize unspecified in the Options column of the https://dataself.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DS/pages/113803288 table has worked for some clients.
Please note that some PDF readers may not be able to resolve PDF with the --pagesize unspecified option.

Log File Showing Tabcmd Export command

When the PDF formatting options are properly passed from the https://dataself.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DS/pages/113803288 file or table to Tableau the options will be passed in Tableau tabcmd export command.

The log file should display the entire line of the tabcmd.exe export command.

tabcmd.exe export command with PDF formatting options --pagelayout and --pagesize

See Also