Five Things I Wish I Knew When I Was A Tableau Newbie
I have used Tableau a lot and along the way I discovered tips and tricks that made my work faster, easier and faster and less frustrating. These are five things I wish someone had told me on day one.
1. The Power of Drag-and-Drop and “Show Me”
As you are getting started with Tableau, it is really easy to play around within the interface. Luckily as you are exploring the dimensions and measures, you can easily drag-and-drop them into the Rows or Columns. Once you have added a few fields you want, you can use the “Show Me” panel to see visualization suggestions. Even after using Tableau for many years I still use these features when creating visuals.
Drag-and-Drop:
Drag dimensions (e.g., "Region" or "Category") to the Rows or Columns shelves to structure your chart.
Drag measures (e.g., "Sales" or "Profit") to the Marks card to populate your chart with values.
Show Me Panel:
You can use the measures from drag-and-drop or highlight fields in the data pane and click “Show Me” to see recommended visualizations.
The combination of drag-and-drop and “Show Me” allows you to quickly see different possibilities you can create when using Tableau.
2. Filters Are Your Best Friend
When I first started making dashboards, they would take forever to load and I could never get a good idea of the visual I was making because there was so much data displayed. That is when I realized filters were my best friend. I was able to refine the data to improve the load speed and make my visuals easier to understand.
Drag a field (e.g., "Region") to the Filters shelf to include/exclude specific data.
Right click a field and “Show Filter”
Not only can you filter the worksheet you are currently working on, but you can apply the filter across multiple sheets throughout your workbook. This eliminates the need to add the filter to every worksheet you are working on and will not only save you time in the long run but make it way easier on the end user in the final dashboard.
To make the filter work across multiple sheets, right-click the filter, select "Apply to Worksheets", and choose "All Using This Data Source" or specific sheets.
3. You Can Copy and Paste Dashboard Items
Have you ever made a dashboard and formatted all your dashboard items and thought… “I spent so much time on all these elements, it will take me so much time to recreate this again”. I spent way too much time recreating the same elements for dashboards—until I learned that Tableau lets you copy and paste dashboard items.
To duplicate a dashboard item you can, select the item, hit Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C) to copy, and Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V) to paste.
When you paste, the element is a floating object, but you can quickly adjust that and place the item where you need it to be.
You can paste dashboard items into the same dashboard or even into a different workbook!
4. You Can Copy and Paste Calculations Between Workbooks
Similar to copying and pasting dashboard items, Tableau also allows you to copy calculated fields between workbooks. This is a lifesaver if someone has already created a calculation you need or even you created it in one workbook and need it again.
To do this, right-click the calculated field in the Data Pane, select Copy, then switch to your new workbook and Paste it into the Data Pane.
This works for table calculations, custom calculations, and parameters.
5. Quickly Filter Measure Names and Measure Values
If you need to display multiple measures (e.g., "Sales," "Profit," and "Quantity") in one view, Tableau makes it easy with Measure Names and Measure Values. This is helpful because there are times when I would just drag and drop all the fields on the Marks card, then use the “Show Me” panel to select the visualization to finally rearrange the measure values how I want them to be displayed. Filtering to Measure Names or Measure Values saved me so much time and gave me more control over what I was doing.
Here’s how to use them:
First drag Measure Names to the Filters shelf to choose which measures you want to include.
Drag Measure Values to the Columns or Rows or “Marks” card shelf to display the selected measures.
Final Thoughts
These are the five tips I wish I’d known as a Tableau newbie. They made my workflow more efficient, allowing me to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time focusing on what really matters: analyzing the data and creating impactful, insightful visualizations.
