This week, we began introductions to Tableau desktop. This was the topic I was most excited about learning as we had previously used Tableau in our applications. However, it was extremely useful to start from scratch and learn how I could have saved myself a lot of time in the application viz.
While we learnt a lot in this session, I have summarised some top tips for Tableau I wish I had known when completed my application.
- What the Blue and Green colours mean
In Tableau, values are sorted into dimensions and measures which usually show as blue for dimensions and green for measures. However, this can lead to confusion as we can have continuous dimensions or discrete measures.
Therefore, it is better to categorise these into discrete and continuous data.
Discrete data: numbers with exact values (usually nondivisible, whole numbers)
Continuous data: numbers that can take any value (e.g. height, weight, temperature). We most commonly use this through change over time
Blue is the discrete data which is used for headers/ labels
Green is continuous data which creates an axis
- Saving time formatting
When completing my application, I probably spent more time making the viz look nice than compiling the data, therefore there are a couple shortcuts you could use to save some time.
If one sheet is perfectly formatted, can right click on the sheet and copy formatting. Then paste just the formatting to other sheets for consistency.
To format the workbook in one go (can be used to remove all grid lines):
Dashboard >> Format
- Using sets instead of groups
Sets and groups are very similar ways to group the data. However a key difference is that groups are static and can only be based on one dimension whereas sets can be dynamic or static.
Therefore, it is generally better to use sets when creating subsets of data as these will update when receiving live data.
- Dates
Referring back to the blue vs green tip, dates can be discrete or continuous and therefore can be changed depending on what your requirement is.
When dragging date onto your sheet, it is best to do this while right clicking. This will bring up a menu option where you can choose how you want your date to present. This could be in static way for bar charts or continuous for a line graph. You can also choose whether you would like these arranged in quarter, month, year etc.
- Filtering
Context filtering is key to the order of your filters that you are inputting onto a worksheet. By right clicking on filter and adding this to context, you would essentially be forcing this filter to be carried out first.