Book of Knowledge Trick Dog Bank Identification
Are you a data rockstar? Let the Tableau community know you're available for hire. Learn More
Resources
How-to Videos
A buffet of materials to help get you started, or take you to the next level.
Select a video below or click/tap here to start from the beginning. Either way, explosions of knowledge will follow.
1. Tableau Public Overview (7:10)
Learn the basics of creating visualizations with Tableau Public
Covers:
- Connecting to data
- Creating Sheets and Dashboards
- Publishing to the web
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
Viz: CO2 Emissions
2. Connecting to Excel and Text Files (4:32)
Learn how to connect to data in Microsoft Excel and CSV files
Covers:
- Connecting to data in Excel
- Connecting to data in CSVs
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
3. Connecting to Google Sheets (3:15)
See how to connect to data in Google Sheets, and how to enable auto-update on your viz
Covers:
- Connecting to data in Google Sheets
- Enabling Google Sheets viz auto-update
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
4. Connecting to Web Data Connectors (2:16)
Learn how to connect to Web Data Connectors
Covers:
- What a Web Data Connector is
- How to connect to Web Data Connectors
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
5. Connecting to Spatial Files (6:03)
6. Connecting to PDFs
7. Data Preparation – The Data Interpreter (4:29)
See Tableau Public's ideal data structure, and learn how to use the Data Interpreter to clean data
Covers:
- How your data should (ideally) be structured
- How to clean your data using the Data Interpreter
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
8. Data Preparation – Pivoting your Data (4:54)
Learn how to pivot your data structure in Tableau
Covers:
- Why you might need to pivot your data structure
- How to use Tableau Public's pivot function
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
9. Data Preparation – Splitting your Data (2:26)
Learn how to split a field into multiple fields in Tableau
Covers:
- Why you might need to split a field in Tableau Public
- How to use Tableau Public's split function
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
10. Data Preparation – Joins and Unions (6:28)
Learn how to join multiple data sets together in Tableau
Covers:
- What are joins and unions
- How to join two data sets together
- How to union multiple data sets
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
11. Creating Your First Chart (2:34)
Find out how to create your first chart in Tableau Public
Covers:
- How to create a chart by double clicking on fields
- How to add extra levels of information to your viz
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
12. Using the Show Me Tool Bar (4:15)
Find out how to create multiple visualization types using the Show Me Tool Bar
- The Show Me tool
- Overview of Chart types
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
13. Understanding the Logic of Charts (5:05)
Learn about the logic of how Tableau Public creates charts
Covers:
- Overview of Dimensions and Measures
- Overview of Columns and Rows shelf
- Overview of the Marks card
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
14. Combining Sheets on a Dashboard (5:27)
15. Adding Interactivity to Dashboards (4:30)
16. Dashboard Formatting (4:05)
Make your dashboards functional and look fantastic with these formatting tips
Covers:
- See how to quickly globally format your dashboards
- Tips to add titles and instructions to your dashboard
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
Viz: Dashboard Formatting
17. Creating Stories (5:55)
Learn how to turn your data into a cohesive narrative using Story Points
Covers:
- See examples of data stories
- Learn how to create story points
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
18. Formatting Story Points (6:54)
Make your stories come to life with these formatting tips
Covers:
- Learn how to fit your dashboards to the story points
- See how to format the story points
- See how to add annotations to your story
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
19. Designing for Mobile with the Device Designer (12:29)
Learn how to make your viz look great on any device with the Device Designer feature
Covers:
- Preview how your viz will look on multiple devices
- How to add a device specific view
- Tips on fitting your viz to device sizes
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
Viz: Device Designer Dashboard
20. Publishing and Embedding Vizzes (4:01)
Once you have made your viz, see how you can share it
Covers:
- How to save a viz to the web
- Edit your viz details
- How to use the viz URL and embed codes
Data: World Bank CO2 (.xlsx)
21. Adding a custom Viz in Tooltip (2:49)
22. Edit Vizzes on the Web (2:45)
Once you have saved a viz to your profile, see how you can edit from your browser.
Covers:
- Create a new sheet from a browser
- Create a calculated field from a browser
- Edit a dashboard from your browser
Viz: Global CO2 Emissions
Sample Data
Where can you find data for your next visualization project? Here are some options to get you started. Download one of the data sets below and connect to it from Tableau Desktop.
Netflix Movies and TV Shows | This dataset consists of tv shows and movies available on Netflix as of 2019. Source: Kaggle | Dataset (xlsx) |
Eurovision 1998 to 2010 | All the Eurovison entries from 1998 until 2012, including the results of the finals, via the Eurovision Song Contest . | Dataset (xlsx) |
Hollywood's Most Profitable Stories | Title, genre, studio, profitability and ratings for movies released 2007-2012 courtesy of InformationIsBeautiful.net. | Dataset (csv) |
Pokemon Index | Contains attack, defense, speed, and HP stats for all Pokemon numbered 1-718 and their special forms. Via PokemonDB.net. | Dataset (xlsx) |
FIFA World Cup Match Results | Matchups and results of FIFA World Cup matches from 1930 - 2014. Source: data.world | Dataset (xlsx) |
2018 FIFA World Cup Rosters | Goals, caps, club, and date of birth for players on 2018 FIFA World Cup rosters. Source: data.world | Dataset (xlsx) |
FIFA 18 Player Ratings | 17k+ players, 70+ attributes extracted from FIFA 18. Source: https://sofifa.com | Dataset (csv) |
ATP Top-Ranked Singles Tennis Players | Association of Tennis Professionals' (ATP) Men's and Women's top-ranked players from 1973-2018. Source: Wikipedia | Dataset (csv) |
Wimbledon Champions | Men's and Women's championship matchups from 1877-2016. Source: Wikipedia | Dataset (csv) |
Tour de France Statistics | Winner, distance, speed, location, and more about Tour de France since 1903. Sources: Knoema, Wikipedia | Dataset (xlsx) |
Global Sport Finances | The top paying pro sports teams and the top paid athletes via ESPN. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Summer Olympics Medalist Dataset | Every summer Olympic medalist from 1896-2012. Criteria such as home country, event, medal, and gender are included in the data. Courtesy of The Guardian. | Dataset (xlsx) |
NFL stats, 1999-2013 | Offensive statistics and personal information (height/weight/dob/combine info/college/conference) for NFL players from 1999-2013 via pro-football-reference.com. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Airbnb Listings in New York City | 30,478 Airbnb listings in New York City. This data was compiled from Inside Airbnb. | Dataset (xlsx) |
FAA Wildlife Strikes, 2015 | This is a cleaned table of wildlife strikes from 2000-2015 in the United States. Visit the FAA Wildlife Strike Database which contains records of wildlife strikes reported by airlines, airports, pilots, and other sources. | Dataset (xlsx) |
University Advancement, Donations, and Giving | This is a table of donations made to Universities in the United States. The donation amounts and locations in this data set are not real as they are intended for training purposes only. | Dataset (xls) |
UK University Research Excellence Framework Ratings 2014 | The UK 2014 University results via Research For Excellence. REF is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. | Dataset (xlsx) |
edX.org Academic Year 2012-2013 | De-identified data from the first year (Academic Year 2013: Fall 2012, Spring 2013, and Summer 2013) of MITx and HarvardX courses on the edX platform via edx.org. | Dataset (csv) |
American University Data | The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) is the primary source for data on colleges, universities, and technical and vocational postsecondary institutions in the United States via the National Center for Education Statistics. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Worldwide Undersea Communications Cables, June 2016 | This is a consolidated list of undersea communications cables, last updated in June 2016. Data is from http://www.cablemap.info/, and a complete change log and listing of cables is on that site as well. | Dataset (zip) |
New Zealand: Water Physical Stock Account 1995–2010 | Water is a valuable resource. The New Zealand Government provides information on national and regional water balance (inflows, outflows, and changes in storage size) from 1995-2000. | Dataset (pdf) |
U.S. Construction Spending, by value and category, 2002-16 | The Value of Construction Put in Place Survey provides monthly estimates of the total dollar value of construction work done in the U.S. The survey covers construction work done each month on new structures or improvements to existing structures for private and public sectors. Data provided by Enigma.io from the U.S. Department of Commerce. | Dataset (csv) |
Consolidated Screening List for Export Controls - U.S. | The consolidated screening list is a list of parties for which the United States Government maintains restrictions on certain exports, reexports or transfers of items. Includes entity names, addresses, associated vessels, and dates. Data provided by Enigma.io from the U.S. Department of Commerce. | Dataset (csv) |
U.S. Home Sales, 1963-2016 | National and regional data on the number of new single-family houses sold and for sale. Also provides national data on median and average prices, the number of houses sold and for sale by stage of construction, and other statistics. From the U.S. Census, Economic Time Series Indicators. Data provided by Enigma.io from the U.S. Department of Commerce. | Dataset (csv) |
2016 Presidential Candidate Spending | Records are as of mid May 2016. Data comes from the Federal Election Commission. | Dataset (csv) |
UK Big Lottery Fund since 2004 | Basic grants data from the UK BIG Lottery Fund, for grants made from 2004 onwards, via data.gov.uk. | Dataset (xlsx) |
113th US Congress Voting Record | Every vote of the 113th US Congress via the Sunlight Foundation's OpenCongress.org.There are two sheets, "Bills" contains the vote data whereas "Sunlight Info" contains additional meta data. You can join them on "Source URL" | Dataset (xlsx) |
Military Equipment Transfer to Local Police via the 1033 Program | All military equipment transfer requests to local police via the 1033 program from September 2011 to September 2013 courtesy of muckrock.com. | Dataset (xlsx) |
CO2 Emissions by London Borough (2005-2014) | Estimates of total CO2 emissions by London Borough, as well as emissions per capita of population (spatial file for Boroughs and excel of emissions), via data.london.gov.uk and data.london.gov.uk (spatial). | Dataset (zip) |
Significant Volcanic Eruptions | A global listing of over 600 volcanic eruptions from 4360 BC to the present via Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Global Active Archive of Large Flood Events | Global flood events from 1985 to present via Dartmouth Flood Observatory. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Magnitude 6+ Earthquakes | All recorded earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or greater from 1900 - 2013 via USGS (United States Geological Survey) | Dataset (xlsx) |
Star Wars Character Details | Details of Star Wars characteristics including weights, hair colour and birth planets via Github. | Dataset (json) |
Titanic Passenger List | All the known passengers of the Titanic, where they were heading, what cabin they stayed in, and if they survived or not. | Dataset (csv) |
Top Baby Names in the US | The most popular male and female names in each state for each year from 1910-2012 via the Social Security Administration. | Dataset (csv) |
Cat vs Dog Popularity in the US | Population and ownership by household of dogs and cats broken down by state via American Veterinary Medical Association. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Startup Venture Funding | Information about startup companies, investment, and acquisitions via Crunchbase . Use the Companies, Rounds, Investments, and Acquisition sheets. | Dataset (xlsx) |
Mobile OS Usage | What percentage of the market each mobile operating system had from 2008-2014 via StatCounter. | Dataset (csv) |
Tuberculosis Burden by Country | The World Health Organization estimates the prevalence and mortality of Tuberculosis by country. | Dataset (csv) |
US County Health Rankings | Ranks US counties on a variety of health factors via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. | Dataset (csv) |
Global Burden of disease | Estimates the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors globally and for 21 regions for 1990 and 2010 via IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations). | Dataset (csv) |
The 2014 Inc. 5000 | The Inc. 5000 is Inc. Magazine's annual list of the 5000 fastest growing private companies in the United States. The list is compiled by measuring each company's percentage revenue growth over a four-year period. | Dataset (csv) |
Employment Changes in Great Britain by Industry | Employment data by industry for 2011 and 2014 by city for Great Britain, courtesy of EMSI, Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. The 1-digit sheet has data aggregated at the industry level whereas the 2 digit sheet has it aggregated at the sub-industry level | Dataset (xlsx) |
Millennial vs Baby Boomer Employment | Employment data in the United States for the millennial and baby boomer generations, broken up by state, MSA, and industry for 2009-2013. Courtesy of EMSI, Economic Modeling Specialists Inc . | Dataset (xls) |
Additional Resources from Tableau Public
Community Resources
Don't go it alone. Participate in fun challenges with the Tableau community, connect with others to learn new tricks and get helpful feedback to improve your Tableau and data viz skills, or just tune into the conversation! The following is an evolving list of some of the most popular initiatives and resources.
Virtual Challenges
Iron Viz
Iron Viz is Tableau's own data visualization contest which consists of a series of topic-themed virtual qualifier competitions that determine the finalists who advance to a live on-stage championship at either Tableau Conference Europe or Tableau Conference. Find out about the schedule and more here:
Get Started
Makeover Monday
Get started with Makeover Monday and join a community dedicated to helping you learn and improve your analysis and visualization skills! Every Sunday, a data set is posted for anyone around the world to try their hand at visualizing it. Each following Wednesday, Tableau Zen Master Eva Murray and long-term Makeover Monday members Sarah Bartlett and Charlie Hutcheson host a webinar to discuss participant submissions and what could be done better. See what people are creating on Tableau Public by exploring the hashtag #MakeoverMonday, or start participating by following instructions here:
Get Started
Workout Wednesday
Every Wednesday, leaders of Workout Wednesday share a viz, challenging anyone around the world to attempt replication and to test and grow their knowledge of useful Tableau techniques. Currently run by Tableau Zen Masters Ann Jackson and Luke Stanke as well as Tableau Ambassadors Lorna Eden and Curtis Harris, see what people are creating on Tableau Public by exploring the hashtags #WorkoutWednesday2019 and #WorkoutWednesday, or start participating by following instructions here:
Get Started
Throwback Data Thursday
Once a month, Throwback Data Thursday provides a historical data set for you to explore, along with details on the provenance of the data source. This initiative is run by David Velleca. Vizzes are typically tagged #ThrowbackDataThursday on Tableau Public. See this Data.World profile for the data:
Get Started
Sports Viz Sunday
Is sports data your thing? The community has you covered. Once a month Simon Beaumont, Spencer Baucke and James Smith host a data visualization challenge based on a topical sports theme, regularly sharing updates from the sports visualization world and providing rich datasets across a wide range of sports. Be sure to explore the hashtag #SportsVizSunday on Tableau Public. To find out more and to download the latest sports data, visit the Sports Viz Sunday website:
Get Started
Project Health Viz
The right challenge for those who are interested in health data. As part of this initiative, Lindsay Betzendahl regularly shares fascinating health-related datasets on Data.World. Vizzes can be found by searching for #ProjectHealthViz on Tableau Public. See the project's website for more information and Lindsay's Data.World profile for the data.
Get Started
Viz for Social Good
Would you like to practice your data viz skills while working on a real-world project and making a real impact? Join one of the Viz for Social goods projects that are run together with different NGOs and mission-driven organizations from around the world. Founded by Chloe Tseng, the initiative is run by a global team of enthusiastic board members, dedicated volunteers, and local chapter leads. Vizzes can found on Tableau Public via the hashtag #VizForSocialGood.
To find out more, visit the Viz for Social good website:
Get Started
Iron Quest
Iron Quest is a monthly data visualization challenge that follows a similar format to the Tableau Iron Viz feeder competitions and that aims at getting people more confident with sourcing their own data and building vizzes that focus on the Iron Viz judging criteria (design, storytelling and analysis). Participants have a calendar month to find a suitable data set and then design, build and submit a data visualization. You can opt-in to receive feedback from organizer Sarah Bartlett and other guest hosts. You can keep track of submissions via this dashboard or by searching for the hashtag #IronQuest on Tableau Public. Instructions on how to participate can be found on Sarah's blog:
Get Started
Preppin' Data
Before you can look for a story in the data and then publish a visualization to Tableau Public, you will often have to clean, transform, or aggregate your data first. Carl Allchin and Jonathan Allenby set a new challenge every week that helps you learn more about self-service data preparation using Tableau Prep Builder. Find out more about Preppin' Data on their blog:
Get Started
#SWDchallenge
The #SWDchallenge is a monthly challenge where you can practice and apply data visualization and storytelling skills. Participants have a week to find data, create and share their visual and related commentary. #SWDchallenge is organized by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic and the team at storytelling with data. On Tableau Public you can find related vizzes with the hashtag #SWDchallenge. Go to the storytelling with data website to get started:
Get Started
#TheSDGVizProject
#TheSDGVizProject is a monthly challenge where participants visualize data related to 1 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Each month, the project focuses on a different goal and organizers Vinodh Kumar, Jacqui Moore, and Brian Moore, share a variety of data sets from the United Nations and The Centre for Humanitarian Data that are related to that month's goal. Vizzes for this project can be found by searching the #TheSDGVizProject hashtag on Tableau Public and the datasets are available on the project's Data.World site. For more information on the Sustainable Development Goals and how to participate visit the project's web site below.
Get Started
Podcasts
Tableau Wannabe Podcast
Hosted by Tableau Ambassadors Matt Francis and Emily Kund, the Tableau WannaBe podcast features interviews and discussion with members of the Tableau community. Aired typically on a monthly basis.
Listen now
Datasaurus-Rex
In this podcast, David Murphy interviews guests from the data viz community to get to know them and their top data visualizations a little better. You'll pick up their tips & tricks, learn what motivates them, how they've improved and have some fun.
Listen now
#Analytics
Hosted by Tableau Zen Masters Ann Jackson and Luke Stanke, this bespoke video podcast focuses on all facets of analytics and data as a profession. During each episode, Ann and Luke narrow in on a specific topic, be it Tableau Public's Iron Viz contest, a special guest, or challenges faced in their day jobs.
Listen now
Additional Resources from Tableau Public
Book of Knowledge Trick Dog Bank Identification
Source: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/resources
Social Media & More
Tableau Follow Friday
The #TableauFF hashtag is used by the Tableau community on Twitter to help highlight and recognize new Tableau Public authors and their work, encouraging others in the community to follow.
Best of the Tableau Web
Many Tableau users share their insights, learning and personal development along their Tableau journey on their own personal blogs. There are too many to list here, but a good starting point is this selection by Tableau's Technical Evangelist, Andy Cotgreave.