Getting Started
What is Tableau Public?
What can I do with Tableau Public?
Visually Analyze Data Rapidly
Build Interactive Dashboards
Share and Interact
What data can I analyze with Tableau?
How Does Tableau Work?
The Tableau Environment
Opening and Closing the Application
Open Tableau
Close Tableau
Start Page
The Tableau Workspace
Data Window
Toolbar
Status Bar
Cards and Shelves
Reorganizing the Workspace
Rearranging Cards
Showing and hiding parts of the workspace
Presentation Mode
Language and Locale
Workbooks and Sheets
Workbooks
Sheets
Creating New Sheets
Undo, Redo, and Clearing Sheets
Duplicating Sheets
Hiding and Showing Worksheets
Deleting Sheets
Organizing Sheets
Files and Folders
Changing the Repository Location
Learning to Use Tableau
Open Tableau
Open Data
Building Views (Manually)
Example 1 – Basic View
Example 2 – Nested Table
Example 3 – Small Multiples
Example 4 – Filter Data
Example 5 – Color Encoding
Building Views (Automatically)
Example 1 – Show Me! with Two Fields
Example 2 – Show Me! with Many Fields
Save to Web
Getting Started
Welcome to Tableau Desktop. Learn more about the product and what it can do. Then explore the Tableau workspace to get familiar with the environment. Finally, follow a step-by-step tutorial that guides you through connecting to data and building your first view.
• What is Tableau Public?
• The Tableau Environment
• Learning to Use Tableau
What is Tableau Public?
Tableau Software provides software applications for fast analytical and rapid fire business intelligence.
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization application that lets you analyze virtually any type of structured data and produce highly interactive, beautiful graphs, dashboards, and reports in just minutes. After a quick installation, you can connect to virtually any data source from spreadsheets to data warehouses and display information in multiple graphic perspectives. Designed to be easy to use, you’ll be working faster than ever before.
Tableau Server is a business intelligence solution that provides browser-based visual analytics anyone can use at just a fraction of the cost of typical BI software. With just a few clicks, you can publish or embed live, interactive graphs, dashboards and reports with current data automatically customized to the needs of everyone across your organization. It deploys in minutes and users can produce thousands of reports without the need of IT services — all within your IT infrastructure.
Tableau Reader is a free viewing application that lets anyone read and interact with packaged workbooks created by Tableau Desktop.
The company is one of the 50 fastest growing software companies in the U.S. Our applications are being used by over 30,000 people worldwide. Customers include companies as diverse as Google, Cleveland Clinic, GM, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, the District of Columbia, Allstate, Cornell and Harvard.
Tableau Public is a free service that lets anyone publish interactive data to the web. Once on the web, anyone can interact with the data, download it, or create their own visualizations of it. No programming skills are required.
• What can I do with Tableau Public?
• What data can I analyze with Tableau?
• How Does Tableau Work?
What can I do with Tableau Public?
magine being able to answer virtually any business question by dragging-and-dropping your data into a free-form visual canvas. You create beautiful graphs, reports and dashboards. You then share those results in just a few clicks. UsingTableau Public, you can build and interact with views of data. These views allow you to query, display, analyze, filter, sort, group, drill down, drill up, calculate, organize, summarize, and present data faster and more efficiently than ever before. With Tableau Public you can share and embed your live, interactive views, reports, and dashboards so that anyone can interact, customize or monitor them.
The various ways that Tableau can help you get more from your data are discussed in more detail below.
• Visually Analyze Data Rapidly
• Build Interactive Dashboards
• Share and Interact
Visually Analyze Data Rapidly
See and Understand
People need effective views of data to understand results, discover relationships, find patterns, locate outliers, uncover structure, and summarize findings. how well can you see what is going on in your business?
Tableau TableauVisual Explorerlets you ask rapid questions of your data by letting youiteratively create and modify live, interactive charts, reports and dashboards in minutes. These views are fundamentally more useful for analysis than those provided by pre-canned reports and traditional dashboards. Tableau gives you interactive visual tables, picture-perfect data displays, side-by-side comparisons, and graphic encodings using color, size and shape. Without any programming or training, users can see and understand data like they’ve never been able to before.
Browse and Explore
Tableau is the world’s leading exploratory browser for databases. A key step in the analysis process is the ability to start with “big picture” summaries of data and then quickly focus on detailed areas of interest.
To conduct effective analysis, it is crucial for people to quickly change what data they are viewing and how it is being viewed. Tableau’s flexible interface enables this free form exploration. Exploratory analysis is further supported with unlimited undo and redo, allowing people to surf their databases much like they surf the web.
Build Interactive Dashboards
Build Dashboards People Can Understand
Use Tableau to build dashboards that communicate clearly and directly. Each element of a dashboard presents information in the most effective way possible, based on the latest research in human perception. Tableau provides the display type that best expresses the data—bar and line charts, maps, tables, scatter plots, and more. Tableau helps you build dashboards that inform and impress.
Monitor and Measure
Use Tableau to build analytical dashboards that compare information and track performance against goals. These dashboards can be based on multiple data sources. They are fully interactive, allowing you to drill into and explore information directly from the dashboard. You can also apply common filters to all the worksheets, allowing you to change the filter and watch an array of visual displays update simultaneously.
Interact and Drill-down
Sometimes you need to answer additional questions within a dashboard. With Tableau, viewers can dynamically filter, highlight, drill-down and link across multiple views in one dashboard. This essentially creates an interactive visual analysis application on the fly
Share and Interact
Present
Imagine pasting Tableau’s vivid multi-dimensional results into Microsoft Office applications and sharing them with others. our users have a reputation for producing high-impact presentations that are easy to understand.
Publish and Embed
Share your graphs, reports, and dashboards by saving them to Tableau Public. Anyone can view and interact with those visualizations using just a browser. They can even embed the view in their own webpages or download the workbook for further analysis.
What data can I analyze with Tableau?
Tableau Public can connect to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and text files. It has a limit of 100,000 rows of data that is allowed in any single connection. Tableau Public automatically imports that data which is then used for all the analysis. Each account holder will be able to save up to 50 megabytes of content to Tableau Public.
The 50 MB space limit applies to the organization level. If you are publishing as an individual on your own blog or website, you’ve got 50 MB of space. If you and several colleagues at a company or institution (like a government agency) are publishing data for your organization, then all the data published by you and your colleagues together count toward the 50 MB limit
How Does Tableau Work?
While Tableau lets you analyze spreadsheets like never before, you don’t need to know anything about databases to use Tableau. In fact, Tableau is designed to allow people with no technical training to analyze their data efficiently.
Tableau is based on three simple concepts:
1. Open Data – Connect Tableau to a Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, or text file that you want to analyze.
2. Analyze – Analyzing data means viewing it, filtering it, sorting it, performing calculations on it, reorganizing it, summarizing it, and so on.
Using Tableau you can do all of these things by simply arranging fields of your data source on a Tableau worksheet. When you drop a field on a worksheet, Tableau queries the data and presents a visual analysis of the data.
3. Share – You can share your results with others by saving it to the web. Once you save your work to Tableau Public, it may be shared (by emailing a link or embedding the work into your blog, wiki, or website). If you embed the work into a webpage, anyone who visits the page will see the live interactive view. if you email a link, just clicking the link will open a browser page with the view loaded.
The Tableau Environment
This section will introduce you to the Tableau environment including how to open and close the application, the workspace in the general, and how your work is organized and stored.
• Opening and Closing the Application
• Start Page
• The Tableau Workspace
• Workbooks and Sheets
• Files and Folders
Opening and Closing the Application
The first thing to understand is how to open and close the application.
• Open Tableau
• Close Tableau
Open Tableau
There are many ways to open Tableau from your desktop computer.
Open the application by doing one of the following:
• Double-click the Tableau icon on your desktop.
• Select Start > All Programs > Tableau.
• Double-click a Tableau workbook or bookmark file. Tableau files are typically stored in the My Tableau Repository folder of your My Documents folder.
• Drag a data source such as an Excel or Access file onto the Tableau icon or the application window. Tableau automatically makes a connect to the data source.
Close Tableau
When you are done working in Tableau you should save your work and close the application.
Close the application by doing one of the following:
• Click the Close icon located in the right corner of the application title bar.
• Select File > Exit.
If your workbook has not been saved, you will be asked whether you want to save it.
Start Page
When you first open Tableau, the Start Page opens to help you get started quickly. The Start Page contains many different resources that are useful whether you are first learning or very experienced.
Open the start page by doing one of the following:
• Open Tableau by double-clicking the icon on your desktop.
• From an open workbook, click the third tab in the top right corner of the workbook.
The start page lets you Open Data, Manage Workbooks, Open your recent workbooks, and see what other people have saved in the Inspiration Zone.
The Tableau Workspace
The Tableau workspace consists of menus, a toolbar, the Data window, cards that contain shelves and legends, and one or more sheets. Sheets can be worksheets or dashboards.
Worksheets contain shelves, which are where you drag data fields to build views. You can change the default layout of the shelves and cards to suit your needs, including resizing, moving, and hiding them.
Dashboards contain views, legends, and quick filters. When you first create a dashboard, the Dashboard is empty and all of the worksheets in the workbook are shown in the Dashboard window.
• Data Window
• Toolbar
• Status Bar
• Cards and Shelves
• Reorganizing the Workspace
• Language and Locale
Data Window
Data fields appear on the left side of the workspace in the Data window. You can hide and show the Data window by selecting View > Data Window. You can also click the minimize button in the upper right corner of the Data window.
You can search for fields in the Data window by clicking the magnifying class icon and then typing in the text box. Right-click the fields in the Data window to access important commands.
Toolbar
Tableau’s toolbar contains commands such as Connect to data, Show Me!, and Save. In addition, the toolbar contains analysis and navigation tools such as Sort, Group, and Zoom. You can undock the toolbar by grabbing its left edge and then dragging it to a new location. You can hide or display the toolbar by selecting View > Toolbar.
The toolbar helps you quickly access common tools and actions. The table below explains the functions of each toolbar button.
Toolbar Button Description
Undo: undoes the last task you completed.
Redo: repeats the last task you cancelled with the Undo button.
Save: saves the changes made to the workbook.
Connect to Data: opens a dialog box where you can create a new connect or select one from your repository.
New Sheet: creates a new blank worksheet.
Duplicate Sheet: creates a new worksheet containing the exact same view as the current sheet.
Clear: clears the current worksheet. Use the drop-down list to clear specific parts of the view such as filters, formatting, and sizing.
Automatic Updates: controls whether Tableau automatically updates the view when changes are made. Use the drop-down list to automatically update the entire sheet or just quick filters.
Run Update: runs a manual query of the data to update the view with changes when automatic updates is turned off. Use the drop-down list to update the entire sheet or just quick filters.
Show Me!: displays alternative views of the data, in addition to the best view according to best practices. The options available depend on the selected data fields when you click this button.
Swap: moves the fields on the Rows shelf to the Columns shelf and vice versa. The Hide Empty Rows and hide Empty Columns settings are always swapped with this button.
Sort Ascending: applies a manual sort in ascending order of a selected field based on the measures in the view.
Sort Descending: applies a manual sort in descending order of a selected field based on the measures in the view.
Group Members: creates a group by combining selected values.
Show Mark Labels: toggles between showing and hiding mark labels for the current sheet.
Presentation Mode: toggles between showing and hiding everything but the view.
View Cards: shows and hides the specified cards in a worksheet. Select the cards you want to hide or show from the drop-down list.
Fit Selector: specifies how the view should be sized within the application window. Select either a Normal fit, Fit Width, Fit Height, or Entire View.
Fix Axes: toggles between locking the axes to a specific range and showing all of the data in the view.
Highlight: turns on highlighting for the selected sheet. Use the options on the drop-down list to define how values will be highlighted.
Status Bar
The status bar is located at the bottom of the Tableau workbook. It displays descriptions of menu items as well as information about the current view. For example, the status bar below shows that the view has 131 marks shown in 3 rows and 11 columns. It also shows that the SUM(Profit) for all the marks is $785,604.
You can hide the status bar by selecting View > Status Bar.
Occasionally, Tableau will display warning icons in the bottom right corner of the status bar to indicate errors that have or may occur. Below are the possible warning icons and what they mean.
Warning Icon Description
Cancel Query Indicator: When you cancel multiple queries, an indicator appears to show you how many queries are still running on the database and using resources. For more information about this warning refer to Abandoned Queries.
Precision Warning: Some fields are more precise in the database than Tableau can model. When you add these fields to the view a precision warning is displayed in the status bar. For more information about this warning refer to Precision Warnings.
Geocoding Warning: If Tableau cannot geocode some of your location values this warning will show. Geocoding warnings may happen if you have unknown location names or names that exist in multiple countries and states.
Cards and Shelves
Every worksheet contains a variety of different cards that you can show or hide. Cards are containers for shelves, legends, and other controls. For example, the Marks card contains the mark selector, the size slider, the mark transparency control, and the shape, text, color, size, angle, and level of detail shelves.
Cards can be shown and hidden as well as rearranged around the worksheet.
The following list describes each card and its contents.
• Columns Shelf – contains the Columns shelf where you can drag fields to add columns to the view.
• Rows Shelf – contains the Rows shelf where you can drag fields to add columns to the view.
• Pages Shelf– contains the Pages shelf where you can create several different pages with respect to the members in a dimension or the values in a measure.
• Filters Shelf– contains the Filters shelf; use this shelf to specify the values to include in the view.
• Measure Names/Values Shelf – contains the Measure Names shelf; use this shelf to use multiple measures along a single axis.
• Color Legend – contains the legend for the color encodings in the view and is only available when there is a field on the Color shelf.
• Shape Legend – contains the legend for the shape encodings in the view and is only available when there is a field on the Shape shelf.
• Size Legend – contains the legend for the size encodings in the view and is only available when there is a field on the Size shelf.
• Map Legend – contains the legend for the symbols and patterns on a map. The map legend is not available for all map providers.
• Quick Filters – a separate quick filter card is available for every field in the view. Use these cards to easily include and exclude values from the view without having to open the Filter dialog box.
• Marks – contains a mark selector where you can specify the mark type as well as the Path, Shape, Text, Color, Size, Angle, and Level of Detail shelves. The availability of these shelves are dependent on the fields in the view.
• Title – contains the title for the view. Double-click this card to modify the title.
• Caption – contains a caption that describes the view. Double-click this card to modify the caption.
• Summary – contains summary of each of the measures in the view including the Min, Max, Sum, and Average.
• Map Options – allows you to modify the various labels and boundaries shown in the online maps. Also you can use this card to overlay metro statistical area information.
• Current Page – contains the playback controls for the Pages shelf and indicates the current page that is displayed. This card is only available when there is a field on the Pages shelf.
Each card has a menu that contains common controls that apply to the contents of the card. For example you can use the card menu to show and hide the card. Access the card menu by clicking on the arrow in the upper right corner of the card.
Reorganizing the Workspace
You can rearrange and hide cards, toolbars, legends, shelves, and more.
• Rearranging Cards
• Showing and hiding parts of the workspace
• Presentation Mode
• Rearranging Cards
• A worksheet contains several cards that contain shelves, legends, and other controls. Each card can be rearranged to create a custom workspace.
• To move a card, point the cursor at the title area of the card you want to move. When the cursor becomes the move symbol , click and drag the card to a new position. As you drag the card around the worksheet, the possible positions for it are highlighted with a black bar.
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• Note:
• You can restore the worksheet windows to their default state by selecting View > Reset Cards
Showing and hiding parts of the workspace
Just about everything in the workspace can be turned on and off so you can avoid cluttering the worksheet with unnecessary cards, shelves, etc.
• To show and hide the Data window, toolbar, or status bar, select View and then select what you want to hide.
• To show or hide a card click View Cards on the toolbar and then select the card you want to show or hide. You can also hide cards using the View menu.
You can restore the worksheet windows to their default state by selecting View > Reset Cards
Presentation Mode
Sometimes you may want to use Tableau for presenting your findings. Rather than hiding each card or shelf one at a time, you can switch into Presentation Mode. Presentation Mode hides everything on the sheet except for the view and its associated legends, quick filters, and parameter controls.
To toggle in and out of Presentation Mode, click the Presentation Mode button on the toolbar or selectWindow > Presentation Mode
Language and Locale
Tableau Desktop workspace is localized into several languages. You can set Tableau to display the user interface (menus, messages, etc.) in one of the supported languages. The language you select is your User Interface (UI) Language. By default, when you install Tableau, the language is set to an automatic setting that recognizes your computer locale and uses the appropriate language is it is supported. If you are using an unsupported language, the application will default to English.
When you run the application, you can change the UI Language by selecting Help > Language. After you change this setting, you’ll need to restart the application for the changes to take effect. You do not need to change this setting for every workbook.
When you change the UI Language, the workbook will automatically use the corresponding locale for number formatting, maps, dates, and so on. By default, the locale is set to Automatic, which means the locale will match the locale when the workbook is opened. This can be useful if you are authoring a workbook that will be viewed in many different languages and you want the dates and numbers to update accordingly. You can override the locale setting for the workbook by selecting Edit > Locale. When you select a specific locale, the workbook will not change regardless of who opens it.
Tableau cascades through the following settings to determine locale:
• Workbook Locale
• Windows Locale
• UI Language
• English
Each feature in Tableau may start at different levels in the above hierarchy. For example, when opening a workbook that has a map view, Tableau will determine the correct map tiles by first looking at the Workbook Locale setting. If it is set to Automatic, it will then look at the Windows Locale setting. If that cannot be determined, it will fall back to the UI language. And finally, if all else fails, it will use English.
Workbooks and Sheets
Tableau uses a workbook and worksheet file structure, much like Microsoft Excel.
• Workbooks
• Sheets
• Creating New Sheets
• Undo, Redo, and Clearing Sheets
• Duplicating Sheets
• Hiding and Showing Worksheets
• Deleting Sheets
• Organizing Sheets
Workbooks
Tableau workbook files are much like Microsoft Excel workbooks. They contain one or more worksheets or dashboards and hold all of your work. They allow you to organize, save, and share your results.
When you open Tableau, a blank workbook is automatically created. You can also create a new workbook by selectingFile > New or by pressing Ctrl + N on your keyboard. You can open an existing workbook by doing one of the following:
• Double-click the thumbnail image of the workbook on the start page. The start page shows workbooks that you’ve recently used.
• Select File > Open and navigate to the location of your workbook using the Open dialog box. Tableau workbooks have the .twb or .twbx file extensions.
• Double-click on any workbook file.
• Drag any workbook file onto the Tableau desktop icon or onto the running application.
The workbook name is displayed in Tableau’s title bar.
You can open multiple workbooks simultaneously. Each workbook is shown in its own window
Sheets
Each workbook can contain worksheets and dashboards. A worksheet is where you build views of your data by dragging and dropping fields onto shelves. A dashboard is a combination of several worksheets that you can arrange for presentation or to monitor. The sheets, whether worksheets or dashboards, display along the bottom of the workbook as tabs. In this section you’ll learn how to create, open, duplicate, hide, and delete sheets as well as how to organize sheets in a workbook
Creating New Sheets
• Create a new worksheet by selecting Edit > New Worksheet or by pressing Ctrl + M on your keyboard.
Tableau inserts a new worksheet into the current workbook.
• Create a new dashboard by selecting Edit > New Dashboard
Tableau inserts a new dashboard sheet into the current workbook.
Tableau automatically generates sheet names. The first worksheet is named Sheet 1, the second worksheet is named Sheet 2, and so on. you can rename a sheet by selecting Edit > Rename Sheet. Alternatively, double-click the name of the sheet on the sheet tab and type a new name.
Undo, Redo, and Clearing Sheets
Every Tableau workbook contains a history of steps you have performed on the worksheets or dashboards. To move backward through the history click Undo on the toolbar or press Ctrl + Z on your keyboard. Similarly, move forward through the history by clicking Redo on the toolbar or by pressing Ctrl + Y on your keyboard.
You can remove all fields, formatting, sizing, axis ranges, filters, and sorts in the sheet by clicking Clear on the toolbar. You can also use the Clear drop-down list on the toolbar to clear specific aspects of the view such as clear all formatting, sizing, filters, or sorts.
Note:
Using the clear commands on the toolbar does not clear the history. If you decide that you didn’t want to clear the sheet, click the Undo button.
Duplicating Sheets
Duplicating a sheet allows you to easily make a copy of a worksheet or dashboard. You can then modify the view without losing the original version. To duplicate the active sheet, select Edit > Duplicate Sheet.
A crosstab (sometimes referred to as a Pivot Table) is a table that summarizes data in rows and columns of text. It is a convenient way to display the numbers associated with the data view.
In Tableau, you can quickly create a cross-tab from a worksheet by selecting Edit > Duplicate as Crosstab. This command inserts a new worksheet into your workbook and populates the sheet with a cross-tab view of the data from the original worksheet. Dashboard sheets cannot be duplicated as crosstabs.
There are other ways to see the numbers behind the data views. For example, you can mouse-over any mark to display the associated numbers in a tooltip. You can also right-click a section of marks and select View Data. Finally, you can copy and paste the data into Excel.
Hiding and Showing Worksheets
A worksheet that is used in a dashboard cannot be deleted, but it can be hidden. You may want to hide a worksheet if you are sharing the dashboard with others and don’t want to clutter the workbook with all the supporting worksheets.
You can hide the worksheets that are used in a dashboard by right-clicking the worksheet tab and selecting Hide Sheet. Keep in mind that someone viewing the dashboard can still access the hidden worksheet.
You can show a hidden sheet by navigating to the dashboard that uses it. Select Go to Sheet on the dashboard view menu. The hidden sheet is shown until you switch to another sheet. When the hidden sheet is showing, you can right-click the sheet tab and select Unhide to unhide it permanently.
Deleting Sheets
Deleting a sheet removes it from the workbook You can delete the active worksheet by selecting Edit > Delete Sheet. Alternatively, right-click the worksheet or dashboard tab along the bottom of the workbook and select Delete Sheet. Worksheets used in a dashboard cannot be deleted, rather you can hide the worksheet.
Note:
There must always be at least one worksheet or dashboard in a workbook.
Organizing Sheets
There are three ways to navigate and view the sheets in a workbook: the tabs at the bottom of the workbook, the filmstrip, and the sheet sorter. The tabs are useful for quickly navigating between a small number of sheets. If your workbook has a large number of sheets, you may find that the sheet sorter makes it easier to navigate them all.
Sheet Tabs
Each sheet, whether worksheet or dashboard, is represented as a tab along the bottom of the workbook. Simply select the tab for the sheet you want to show in the workspace. On the left side of the tabs there are several controls that you can use to advance through each sheet or quickly jump to the first or last sheet in the workbook.
You can also navigate between sheets using the Window menu or move through the multiple worksheets by pressing Ctrl + F6 on your keyboard.
You can also right-click these tabs to specify commands that apply to the entire selected sheet. For example you can create new sheets, duplicate sheets, copy formatting, and delete the sheet entirely. Finally, you can hold the control key when selecting to select and apply settings to multiple sheets all at once.
Filmstrip
Similar to the sheet tabs, the mini sheet sorter displays along the bottom of the workbook. However, instead of sheet names, the filmstrip shows a thumbnail image of each sheet. The filmstrip is useful when you are using Tableau to present your analysis and works well when you are working in Presentation mode.
Open the filmstrip by clicking the arrows on the far right side of the sheets tabs at the bottom of the workbook. Just like with the tabs, select the thumbnail image for the sheet you want to open. You can right-click the images to specify command that apply to each sheet.
Sheet Sorter
The full sheet sorter shows all sheets in a workbook as thumbnail images on a single page and is similar to the slide sorter in Microsoft Power Point. The sheet sorter is really useful when you have a large number of sheets in a workbook. Open the sheet sorter by clicking the sheet sorter tab in the upper right corner of the workbook.
From the sheet sorter you can drag and drop to reorder the sheets, create new sheets, and duplicate or delete existing sheets. Right-click a sheet to see these commands. You can also right-click to refresh the thumbnail image of a particular sheet or Refresh All Thumbnails at once.
Files and Folders
You can save your workbook to the web by selecting File > Save to Web. You can organize and remove workbooks by logging into Tableau Public or by clicking Manage Workbooks on the start page.
Any view saved to Tableau Public can be downloaded and saved locally on your computer, including the raw data as part of a packaged workbook (TWBX) file. This feature allows anyone with Tableau Desktop Professional or Personal Editions, or the free Tableau Desktop Public Edition to review and extend the analytic work that was behind the original workbook.
The downloaded workbooks can be opened using Tableau Public Desktop Edition as long as the original file remains active on Tableau Public. If the original author deletes the content from Tableau Public, then Tableau Desktop Public Edition won’t be able to open the downloaded file either. Tableau Desktop Personal and Professional Editions will open files downloaded from Tableau Public even after the original has been removed from the Tableau Public server.
You can save your work using several different Tableau specific file types: workbooks, bookmarks, packaged data files, data extracts, and data connection files. Each of these file types are described below.
• Workbooks – Tableau workbook files have the .twb file extension and are marked with the workbook icon. Workbooks hold one or more worksheets and dashboards.
• Bookmarks – Tableau bookmark files have the .tbm file extension and are marked with the bookmark icon. Bookmarks contain a single worksheet and are an easy way to quickly share your work.
• Packaged Workbooks – Tableau packaged workbooks have the .twbx file extension and are marked with the packaged workbook icon. Packaged workbooks contain a workbook along with any supporting local file data sources and background images. This format is the best way to package your work for sharing with others who don’t have access to the data.
• Data Extract Files – Tableau data extract files have the .tde file extension and are marked with the extract icon. Extract files are a local copy of a subset or entire data source that you can use to share data, work offline, and improve database performance.
• Data Connection Files – Tableau data connection files have the .tds file extension and are marked with the data connection icon. Data connection files are shortcuts for quickly connecting to data sources that you use often.
These files can be saved in the associated folders in the My Tableau Repository directory, which is automatically created in your My Documents folder when you install Tableau. Your work files can also be saved in other locations, such as your desktop or a network directory.
• Changing the Repository Location
Changing the Repository Location
You can specify a new location for the Tableau repository if you are not using the default location in your Documents folder. For instance, if you are required to have your data on a network server instead of on your local machine, you can point Tableau at the remote repository.
1. Select File > Repository Location.
2. Select a new folder that will act as the new repository location in the Select a Repository dialog box.
3. Restart Tableau so that it uses the new repository.
Changing the repository location does not move the files contained in the original repository, rather it creates a new repository where you can store your files.
Learning to Use Tableau
The purpose of this section is to get you started with by presenting a simple example. The exercises takes you through all the basic steps you would use for your own work. These steps are:
• Open Tableau
• Open Data
• Building Views (Manually)
• Building Views (Automatically)
• Save to Web
• Open Tableau
• You can open Tableau by selecting All Programs > Tableau 6.1 on the Windows Start menu or by double-clicking the desktop shortcut.
• Tableau opens showing the start page. The first time you open the application, the start page shows a getting started video. After you’ve saved some workbooks the start page shows recently saved workbooks, a gallery for inspiration, and links to additional resources including managing workbooks. Although the start page shows when you first open Tableau, you can always return to the start page after you start working by clicking the start page tab in the upper right corner of the workbook.
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Open Data
The first step to getting started with Tableau is to connect to the data you want to explore. For this example, you will connect to the Sample – Superstore Sales (Excel) data source that is installed with the application. There are many ways to connect to data, for example you can use the start page, the toolbar, or the Data menu. Follow the instructions below to connect to an Excel workbook from the start page.
1. Click Open Data on the left side of the start page.
2. In the subsequent dialog box, select the connection type. For this example, select Microsoft Excel and then click OK.
3. Complete the Excel Workbook Connection dialog box and click OK.
The Excel data is located in the Datasources directory of the Tableau Repository. By default, the Tableau Repository is created in your My Documents folder when Tableau is installed.
Tableau loads the data. If the data. If there are more than 100,000 rows in the data source, you will need to filter the data.
4. Click Add to create filters based on the columns in your data source.
For example, you could filter to include specific states or a range of sales values. Add as many filters as you need to limit the rows to 100,000 or fewer.
Once connected, the columns from the data source (e.g., Customer Name, Order Date, and Total Sales) are shown on the left side of the workbook in the Data window. Each column is shown as a separate field that you can drag and drop to start exploring your data.
The fields are organized into two sections: dimensions and measures. Dimensions typically hold categorical data such as product types and dates, while measures hold numeric data such as sales and profit.
An important concept to understand in Tableau is that you can build views of your data by dragging fields from the Data window to the shelves in the view. For example, below you can see the fields from the sample data source as well as the shelves.
Building Views (Manually)
You can build data views by dragging fields from the Data window and dropping them onto the shelves that are part of every Tableau worksheet.
This section presents five data view using the Sample-Superstore Sales (Excel) data source that comes with the application.
• Example 1 – Basic View
Example 1 – Basic View
In this example, you will build a basic view that shows yearly profits. Follow the steps below to build this view.
1. Click and drag the Order Date field from the dimensions area of the Data window to the Columns area of the view.
When you place a field on the columns area of the view it is also added to the Columns shelf. You can also drag directly to these shelves. When you drag a field over a shelf, a blue arrow indicates that the shelf can accept the field.
The resulting table has four columns and one row. Each column header represents a member of the Order Date field (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010). Each cell contains an “Abc” label, which indicates that the current mark type for this view is text.
Note:
Notice that the field is colored blue indicating it is a dimension. Also, the field name changed to YEAR(Order Date) because year is the default date level for this field. The default date level is determined by the highest level that contains more than one distinct value (e.g., multiple years, multiple months, etc.). That means that if Order Date contained data for only one year but had multiple months, the default level would be month. You can change the date level using the field menu.
2. Drag the Profit field from the Measures area of the Data window and drop it on the Rows area of the view.
The table is automatically transformed into a line chart and a vertical axis is created for the measure. A line is used as a great way to compare data over time, and allow you to visually compare data and identify trends effectively.
The line chart shows profit over time. Each point along the line shows the sum of profit for the corresponding year.
Note:
The Profit field is colored green, indicating that it is a measure. Also the field name changed to SUM(Profit). That’s because the default aggregation for measures in a relational database is SUM. You can change the aggregation using the field menu.
• Example 2 – Nested Table
Example 2 – Nested Table
In this example you will modify the view from Example 1 – Basic View to show quarters in addition to years. Follow the steps below to build this view.
Show quarters using one of the following methods:
• Drill down on the Year(Order Date) field by clicking the plus button on the right side of the field.
• Drag the Order Date field from the Data window and drop it on the Columns shelf to the right of the Year(Order Date) field.
The new dimension divides the view into separate panes for each year. Each pane has columns for the quarters of the given year. This view is called a nested table because it displays multiple headers, with quarters nested within years.
• Example 3 – Small Multiples
• Example 3 – Small Multiples
• In this example you will modify the view from Example 2 – Nested Table to show quarterly profit by year and customer segment.
• Drag the Customer Segment dimension from the Data window and drop it just to the left of the Profit axis in the view.
• The field is added to the rows shelf and row headers are created. Each header represents a member of the Customer Segment field.
• Tableau does not allow you to place a dimension to the right of a measure on either the Rows or Columns shelves.
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• The new dimension divides the view into 20 panes: one for each combination of year and customer segment. This view is a more complex example of a nested table and is often referred to as a small multiples view.
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• Example 4 – Filter Data
Example 4 – Filter Data
In this example you will modify the view from Example 3 – Small Multiples to only show data for orders in 2009 and 2010 where the sale amount was greater than $10,000.
1. Drag the Sales measure from the Data window and drop it on the Filters shelf.
2. Select the aggregation you want to use for the filter. For this example, select All Values to create a filter on the disaggregated data.
Filtering aggregated data means that the selected aggregation function (sum, average, etc.) is applied to the data and then it is filtered. Filtering disaggregated data means that the individual data rows are filtered before any aggregation function is applied. Aggregations do not apply to multidimensional data because the data has already been aggregated in the database.
3. In the Filter dialog box, use the sliders or type into the text box to change the lower limit on the range of values to 10,000.
4. When finished, click OK.
The view updates to only show profit for orders that were over $10,000. No new axes were created because the field was not added to the Rows or Columns shelves.
5. Select Filter on the Year(Order Date) field menu.
6. In the Filter dialog box, deselect all years except 2009 and 2010 and then click OK.
The SUM(Profit) is calculated only for data rows where sales is greater than or equal to $10,000 and Order Date is 2009 or 2010.
• Example 5 – Color Encoding
• Example 5 – Color Encoding
• In this example you will modify the view from Example 4 – Filter Data to color the marks by region. Follow the steps below to build this view.
• Drag the Region dimension from the Data window and drop it on the Color shelf.
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• Placing a dimension on the Color shelf separates the marks according to the members in the dimension, and assigns a unique color to each member. The color legend displays each member name and its associated color.
• Each pane now has four lines, one for each region. This view now shows profit for each customer segment and region for 2009 and 2010 orders with sales greater than or equal to $10,000.
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Building Views (Automatically)
Rather than building views by dragging and dropping fields, you can use Show Me!™ to create views automatically.
This section presents two examples using the Sample-Superstore Sales (Excel) data source that comes with the application.
• Example 1 – Show Me! with Two Fields
Example 1 – Show Me! with Two Fields
In this example, you will create a line chart that displays profit as a function of time. Follow the steps below to create this view.
1. Select Order Date and Profit in the Data window. Hold the Control key (Ctrl) on your keyboard to select multiple fields.
2. Click Show Me! on the toolbar.
3. In the Show Me! dialog box, select the type of view you want to create and click OK.
Because a date dimension and a measure are selected, Tableau suggests you build a line view, which is generally the best way to look at measures over time.
The view shows SUM(Profit) over time. Each point on the line represents the sum of profit for the corresponding year.
You can see the values for each year by turning on Mark Labels. Click the Mark Labels button on the toolbar.
• Example 2 – Show Me! with Many Fields
Example 2 – Show Me! with Many Fields
In this example you will use Show Me! to build a scatter plot that shows sales versus profit for each product and customer.
1. Select Sales, Profit, Product Name, and Customer Name in the Data window. Hold the Control key (Ctrl) on your keyboard to select multiple fields.
2. Click Show Me! on the toolbar.
3. In the Show Me! dialog box, select the scatter view and click OK.
Show Me! automatically creates a scatter plot with the fields you selected. You can now manually start dragging fields to further refine the view.
Save to Web
After you’ve created all the desired views of your data, you should save the results to teh web. Follow the steps below to save your workbook.
1. Select File > Save to Web or press Ctrl + S on your keyboard.
2. If you have not logged into your Tableau Public account, log in when prompted. You can also click the link at the bottom of the dialog box to create an account for free.
3. After logging in or creating an account, type a name for the workbook and click Save.
4. The workbook is published and you are shown a preview of each of the sheets. Click the Share button in the lower left corner to get a link you can email or code code you can use to embed the view in your webpage.
When you save workbooks to the web the entire workbook and its underlying data are available for download by others.
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