Troubleshooting PDF rendering - missing headers and columns

[jdrummey]

This needs to go in the troubleshooting section of the User Guide. When there are text tables built out using all discrete pills on Rows and the view is rendered to PDF the output can end up with one or more of the following problems:

• font becomes smaller
• row headers are missing
• right-hand columns missing
• right-most column is partially cut off

See the all discretes text table problem.png for an example screenshot of a PDF with this problem.

This problem is due to a bug in Tableau Server's rendering that crops up when the PDF is directly downloaded by VizAlerts, it doesn't happen when printing to PDF from Tableau Desktop nor when downloading the PDF manually from Tableau Server.

There are two workarounds:

1. Place the worksheet in a dashboard where the dashboard has the right size for the desired page layout. This can create a lot more work.
2. In the VIZ_PDF() content reference add the :size=width,height URL parameter where [width],[height] are appropriate for the desired page layout, for example :size=1100,850 for a landscape 8 1/2"x11" page.

See the all discretes text table fixed.png for an example screenshot of a corrected PDF.

[mcoles]

Hey Jonathan, Is Tableau already aware of this bug? If not, I'll log it.

[jdrummey]

I think so, but I can't be sure. Over the years I've had a few rendering problems that ended up creating bug reports, I don't know if this was one of them.