Tableau tips and tricks

With help of Tableau we can create presentable and effective data visualizations. At the same time, it has a wide range of functions that allow to conduct in-depth analysis, make visualization simpler and more understandable for perception, to present the results of work in a convenient format and save your time. But in most cases, these functions do not lie on the surface, their use is not intuitive, while working in the Tableau for a while you may not even know about their existence. In this article we will tell you about the basic tips and techniques that will make your work in Tableau easier.

Content

I Data tips

1. To bring in data quickly
2. Get the original data from .twbx file
3. Replace one measure/dimension on other for all sheets

II. Analytical tips

1. Bar into a bar
2. Building a calendar
3. Advanced sorting
4. Customized average line
5. Using ‘random’ function

III Design tips

1. Rotate vertical axis label in horizontal
2. Put axis X in the top of the chart
3. Clear formatting quickly
4. Show specific mark labels
5. Quick way to get a color on the chart
6. Default properties
7. Show/hide ‘null’ indicator
8. Add space between rows or columns

IV Presentation tips

1. Alighting to grid and sizing floating objects
2. Device preview
3. Make presentation dashboard not clickable

I Data tips

1. To bring in data quickly

Example 1. You can open a file (let’s take Excel spreadsheet as an example) on your computer, pick one and just drag it right onto any place in Tableau.

Example 2. You can just open your Excel workbook, select and copy data, then on Tableau panel click “File” => “Paste”, and the data will be loaded into a new workbook.

2. Get the original data from .twbx file

Let’s say someone sent you a .twbx file, and you want to get the original data from it. In such case, at first you need to unpack the file. Then open the ‘Data’ folder in unpacked workbook, and you’ll find the file with original data.

3. Replace one measure/dimension on other for all sheets

We have several sheets with the charts for ‘Sales’ (map, bars, etc.), which reflect the state of sales. And we want quickly replace measure ‘Sales’ on measure ‘Profit’ on all of these sheets. To do this, right click on ‘Sales’ and choose ‘Replace References’, then in opened menu click on ‘Profit’ and ‘OK”.

II. Analytical tips

1. Bar into a bar

Let’s look at a step-by-step example where we compare sales and profits for different products. First, we add “Category” on a row shelf and “Sales” on a column shelf, then drop “Profit” on top of X axis to do a combine axis. Then move “Measure names” to colors, turn off the stack marks in “Analysis”. Then duplicate “Measure names” onto the “Size” shelf and that’s all.

2. Building a calendar

Perhaps you want to see the dynamics of sales or profit by the days of the week or compare the result of the beginning and the end of the month in the usual format of the calendar. For this, drag your “Date” dimension (by right-click) to the columns and rows shelf, in weekdays and week numbers format respectively. Then drag certain measure to the “Color”, and “Date” dimension to the “Label” in a date number format. Also, you can add some formatting according to your needs.

You can customize it further buy adding information you need to labels

3. Advanced sorting

For example, we want to sort out the profit in descending order by two dimensions — category and product:

Method 1. Drag ‘SUM(Profit,$)’ using Ctrl right next to it, so you’ll have two charts, then double-click on duplicated ‘SUM(Profit,$)’ and put a negative sign in front of it and make it discrete. Then blue pill ‘-SUM([Profit,$])’ move down in between ‘Category’ and ‘Product’, and hide its header.

Result of the sorting

Method 2. Select two dimensions, holding Ctrl and create a combined field, which must be placed right between those dimensions in ‘Rows’ shelter. Then in context menu you may hide headers, choose sort order, etc.

Method 3. Let’s say we have three dimensions in the chart and want to sort out ‘Profit’ measure by them. First, you need to create a parameter for sorting by ‘Category’ and ‘Product’. Then, create two calculating fields for those dimensions to make parameter work. Finally, you may hide headers for calculated fields, add some color and other formatting you need.

4. Customized average line

For a clear picture of the analysis, you can add an average line on chart with additional formatting. Just double-click on ‘Average line’ under ‘Analytics’ section to add an average line, then right click on it and choose ‘Format’ (to change font, color, alignment, etc.) or ‘Edit’. For example, we can change label to see the average value.

5. Using ‘random’ function

For example we want to show a distribution of sales values of all the years within the months. But visualization is not very good for perception (see below):

In this case, we can use function ‘Random’, just type “random()” in the columns shelter and change marks type on ‘Circle’.

Maybe in this case its help is not so big, but imagine if we would have 100 years of history in data set.

III Design tips

1. Rotate vertical axis label in horizontal

To do this you need to type in a “Rows” line a text in quotes, then double-click your axis and delete the text in a title row.

2. Put axis X in the top of the chart

You can do this under ‘Analysis’ tab, in ‘Table layout’ with ‘Advanced’ options by unchecking box ‘Show innermost level at bottom of view when there is a vertical axis’.

Or you could do it in another way. Just create a copy of ‘Category’ dimension and put it right next to the ‘Category’ in ‘Columns’ shelter, then hide a bottom header.

3. Clear formatting quickly

For example, you have a lot of formatting on the worksheet and your goal is to get rid of it quickly. For this, right-click on a certain measure/dimension, choose “format” in a context menu, click on the formatting section you need, then in section “Default” right-click on needed function => “Clear”.

4. Show specific mark labels

You need to click on certain marks holding Ctrl, then hover right click on one of them and choose ‘Mark Labels’ -> ‘Always Show’.

5. Quick way to get a color on the chart

6. Default properties

In some cases, you may need to change formatting or aggregation for some of the measures for the whole time. In such cases being able to set the default properties will save you a lot of time. For example, if you drag some measure to the columns or rows it will always come at the aggregation of ‘Sum’ and with a standard way of formatting. To change that, right click on some measure and in section ‘Default Properties’ –> ‘Aggregation’ choose, for example, ‘Average’ type. So, in next time, when you drag some measure into the columns or rows shelter on any sheet of exact Tableau workbook, it will come at the aggregation of ‘Average’. In exactly the same way, you can define the default formatting for measures.

The same logic applies to other categories under ‘Default Properties’

7. Show/hide ‘null’ indicator

To hide ‘null’ indicator on your chart you need to right click on it and choose ‘Hide Indicator’.

If you need to get back hidden indicator, you have to go up to ‘Analysis’ menu and check ‘Show’ for ‘Special values’.

8. Add space between rows or columns

To make visualization easier to perceive, it makes sense to separate the different categories. Under the ‘Analytics’ panel we double click on ‘Totals’, then click on any totals bar and in automatic menu check ‘Hide’. Then right click on any title ‘Total’ and in format menu make labels blank.

To put spaces between columns you may use INT function, for this type in the ‘Columns’ shelter “INT(NULL)” wherever it needed. Then double click on an axis ‘INT(NULL)’ -> ‘Edit’, and in ‘General’ section you can get rid of the title, and in ‘Tick Marks’ section check ‘None’ for ‘Major Tick Marks’.

IV Presentation tips

1. Alighting to grid and sizing floating objects

If you want to make your floating objects on dashboard very precise, there is a very easy way for this: under your “Layout” tab you can control height and weight of your objects, as well as X and Y placement.

2. Device preview

We have built a dashboard and now we want to see how it will be looking on different devices. For this, you can use option ‘Device Preview’ under the ‘Dashboard’ section. For example, we find out that our dashboard looks not so great on a phone, but on the other types of device everything is good. To change sheets layout and formatting only for a phone type of device, click ‘Add Phone Layout’ on a device preview panel, and then ‘Custom’ under ‘Layout-Phone’. So now all changes applied will be valid only for the phone device.

3. Make presentation dashboard unclickable

Let’s say you do not want the user to be able to click on anything or even hover on dashboard in presentation mode. You need to go ahead to ‘Dashboard’ menu, switch object type to floating and drag ‘Blank’ object over top of the dashboard. After this, if you go back into presentation mode, you’ll see then objects become unclickable.