Tableau Conference 2024 – San Diego
These references are from the perspective of someone who has worked with Microsoft Power BI for years and then needed to learn Tableau.
Note: Creating this page reminded me of the difficulty in creating a taxonomy/classification of links.
Tableau Learning
| Free Training Videos | From Tableau. (Especially the 9 videos in the “Getting Started” section), total of 20 minutes. Very dense, useful introduction to Tableau Desktop. |
| Tableau Basics Full Course by Learnit | YouTube (6:40:32) by Trish Conner-Cato |
| Getting Started with Tableau | From Tableau. |
| Tableau Desktop Crash Course | Tableau training for beginners | YouTube (3:44:07) From Tableau Tim (Tim Ngwena, a Tableau Visionary). I have not actually seen this. Please let me know if you like it. |
| Tableau Desktop Resources for Newbies | by Katie Kilroy from Tableau. |
| What Is Trailhead? All About Salesforce’s Free Online Learning Platform | “Anyone can skill up with Trailhead. Whatever your background or interest, there’s a learning path for you.” by Ann Weeby at Salesforce. |
| Think Data Thursday | From Tableau. Bunch of videos. |
| MLuttonBI | Matt Lutton’s blog site with lots of video links. |
Important Tableau Documentation Links (mostly)
| Resource | Notes |
| Explore Forums | Get Answers from the Tableau Community. |
| Discover Tableau Public | “A free platform to explore, create, and publicly share data visualization online.” |
| Tableau Desktop – Release List | From Tableau. Includes download links. |
| Tableau Blueprint Overview | From Tableau. This is really a parent document to many other documents. Guidance. Governance. Strategy. Adoption. |
| The Tableau Workspace | From Tableau. |
| Parts of the View | From Tableau. (Axes, Panes, Cells, Marks, Tooltips, Titles, Captions, Field Lables, and Legends) |
| Keyboard Shortcuts | From Tableau, for both Windows and Mac. |
| Shelves and Cards Reference | From Tableau. |
| A Guide to Charts | From Tableau. Separate linked topics for each of the following visualization types: Pie Chart Bar Chart Line Chart Scatterplot Histogram Bullet Graph Packed Bubble Chart Box & Whisker Treemaps |
| The Best Visualization for You | From Tableau. Map vs. Bar, Line vs. Bar, Text Table vs. Bar, etc. |
| Data Source Page | From Tableau. Nice “tour” of the UI. |
| Create Custom Color Palettes | From Tableau. |
| Tableau Functions (by Category) | From Tableau. Here is the link to the “Alphabetical” listing. |
| Format Text | From Tableau. |
| Format Numbers and Null Values | From Tableau. |
| Show, Hide, and Format Mark Labels | From Tableau. |
| Sort Data in a Visualization | From Tableau. |
| Removing “Abc” Placeholder Text | From Tableau. |
| Best Practices for Telling Great Stories | From Tableau. |
| Tableau Workbook Performance Checklist | From Tableau. This leads to various additional resources. See this additional resource from InterWorks. |
| 10 hacks to make your dashboard GREAT! | By Louis Yu found at Tableau Public |
| Parameters – How-to and Use Cases | By Jim Dehner. |
| When to Use Filters, Groups & Sets in Tableau | From InterWorks. |
| Filters and Level of Detail Expressions | From Tableau. I like the graphic in this reference which describes the timing of filter applications. |
| How to Spot Misleading Charts | A Checklist by Sue Kraemer, Senior Data Skills Curriculum Strategy Manager, Tableau. Many additional visualization best-practice and related references! |
| Use Background Images in Your Views | From Tableau. |
| The Order of Things: How to Control the Layout of Marks | by Florian Ramseger, Product Specialist, Tableau Public. |
| Tableau REST API | From Tableau. |
| Tableau’s Order of Operations | Good, thorough reference, from Tableau. |
References on Data Ingestion, Modeling, and Data Cleansing
| Tableau Beginners | Understand Tableau’s Data Model | YouTube (14:40) from The Information Lab (NL). |
| Unlocking Data Access for Business Users in Tableau: A Step-by-Step Guide | by Matthias Giger from the Tableau Blueprint. |
| Connect to a Custom SQL Query | From Tableau. |
| Using Custom SQL in Tableau: Points to Consider | From The Information Lab. |
| What is the difference between Custom SQL and Initial SQL? | Tableau forum reference. |
| A Comprehensive Guide to Custom SQL in Tableau | From Zenlytic. |
| SQL with Tableau | From DataCamp. In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect Tableau to a Microsoft SQL Server database and then analyze the data to get insights. |
| How Relationships Differ from Joins | From Tableau. Excellent reference with multiple graphics. |
| The Tableau Data Model | From Tableau. Excellent reference describing the differences between logical and physical data layers and excellent supporting graphics. |
| Relate Your Data | From Tableau. Excellent reference. Describes relationships v. joins and more. |
| Connecting to Multiple Data Sources Without Joining or Blending | From Salesforce. |
Core Report-Building References (Visualizing, Filtering, Sorting, Formatting)
Dashboard References
| Advanced Tableau Dashboard Formatting Tips and Techniques | From Data Crunch. | |
| Best Practices for developing Tableau Dashboards (Step 7.3) | UCSF Data Resources. | |
| Control Vertical Alignment of Text In Title Container for Tableau Dashboards | by DevCodeF1.com. | |
| 5 easy cheats to make stellar Tableau dashboards | by Bridget Cogley at TableauFit. | |
| The Ultimate Guide to Tableau Dashboards (+ Examples) | by Hady Elhady at Layer. | |
| How To Avoid the Dystopian and Dope Extremes of Dashboard Development | by Robby White at Interworks. | |
| Using Lines, Borders And Padding To Split Up Your Dashboard | by Timothy Manning (a.k.a., TableauTimothy) at The Data School | |
| Adding Borders Around Sheets on Dashboards | by Tableau. |
Tableau Administration
| Tableau Server Permission Icons | by Bryce Larsen at Medium This allows you to build a clever admin report of the “securables”, “principals”, and the permissions assigned. |
Tableau Calculation References (Row-Level, Aggregate, Level of Detail [LoD], Table)
Strategy and Best Practices
| What is a Tableau Style Guide | From DataBrains Check the “Related Resources”, too |
| Save time with these 10 Tableau shortcuts | by Tableau Zen Master Jeffrey Shaffer. |
| Publishing Checklist Google doc link | by Brian & Jacqi Moore at Do Mo(o)re With Data. “By going through a list of common data source and publishing checklist items before publishing, you can prevent a lot of common issues with data sources and dashboards from making it to your users.” |
Miscellaneous Tableau References and Bloggers to Follow
| Tableau Desktop – Latest Release download link and info | |
| Understanding License Models and Product Keys | Tableau documentation. |
| DataFam Roundup: October 16–20, 2023 | Tableau blog, ton of potentially useful links. |
| How To Build Collapsible Menus In Tableau | by Luke Stanke at phData. |
| Top articles on Tableau, Alteryx and Data | TAR Solutions blog. |
| Let’s build – A dynamic table allowing your viewers to select the drill down dimensions | by Steffen at Tableau Adventurer. He uses some infrequently used Tableau functions. Not all of them (i.e., REGEXP_EXTRACT( ) ) are available for use with SQL Server. Lots of other great topic links on the side, too. |
| 4 Design Techniques that I am Obsessed With | by Kevin Flerlage at The Flerlage Twins. |
| Several free downloadable ebooks | Moxy Analytics (Flerlages). |
| How to Drill into a Single Row of a Text Table in Tableau Tableau Tip: Single Row Drilldown “Deluxe” | by Ryan Sleeper at Playfair Data. |
| How to Build Collapsible Containers Five Different Ways | (Tableau Public) by Data Coach. |
| Tableau Zen Master builds Collapsible Tables | YouTube (24:18) by Tableau Zen Master Luke Stanke. |
| Action Analytics | Library, including videos. |
| The Visual Capitalist | Bunch of infographics, not vendor specific. |
| BLOGGERS and YouTubers | |
| Baraa Khatib Salkini | Blogsite Tableau Public YouTube Channel |
| Andy Kriebel | The VizWiz, a “highly decorated” Tableau professional. |
Tableau Designations
| Tableau Visionaries | “Recognized for their contributions, they are nominated by the community and represent diverse skill sets, backgrounds, and interests from all around the world.” Tableau Visionaries were formerly called Tableau Zen Masters, explained here, with the 2021 Zen Master List. |
| Some Tableau Visionaries elevate to the Tableau Visionary Hall of Fame | “Hall of Fame Visionaries serve at least 5 terms and are selected based on overall contributions to and stewardship of the Tableau Community. We are privileged to recognize these individuals for their dedication to the Visionary Program.” |
| Tableau Ambassadors | “Tableau Ambassadors teach and share while fostering a positive and supportive space within the community.” 2023 Tableau Ambassadors |
| What is Tableau’s Iron Viz? Top 10 Qualifiers for Iron Viz 2024 | |
| Tableau Certifications | Tableau Desktop Specialist Tableau Data Analyst Tableau Server Associate Certified Tableau Consultant Certified Tableau Architect Click on the picture below on some certification advice from Interworks, and see this link also.  |
Tableau Public Favorites
| Roman empire visualization and timeline | by Nir Smilga |
Sample of some Tableau User Groups in the USA
Books
- Learning Tableau 2022
Packt Publishing - Mastering Tableau 2023
Packt Publishing