Posted on 12/29/2023 by Niko Venev
Tableau is a very popular piece of software that's used to turn mountains of data into visualizations that can help people understand and use the data in a variety of ways. The software is mostly used by data analysts at a wide range of businesses and by researchers in academia. Tableau can be a fairly complex program to use, but investing the time and energy into learning it can pay dividends by producing actionable insights that can drive business success.
Live Tableau Instructor-led Courses |
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Course Title | Length | Price (USD) |
Tableau Desktop: Basic | 2 days | $1,300 |
Tableau Desktop: Advanced | 2 days | $1,300 |
Tableau Desktop: Business Intelligence | 2 days | $1,300 |
Tableau Desktop - Combo (Basic, Advanced & BI) | 6 days | $3,570 |
Self-Paced Tableau eLearning |
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Course Title | Length | Price (USD) |
Tableau eLearning Bundle | 7 courses | $475 |
Your Tableau introduction starts with opening up Tableau Desktop and getting the lay of the land. You'll see a Connect pane on the left, where you can pull in your data. Choose a data source if you already have one to work with, or look under Saved Data Sources and choose "Sample - Superstore" to get a sample data set to use for now. You should now see the workspace opened up, including a Data pane on the left that contains all of the data you'll be working with. Tableau will automatically categorize the data as it's imported.
Tableau uses drag-and-drop functionality to make it simple to create any kind of table or chart. To start, just drag the data types you want to use from the Data pane into the Columns and Rows sections (called "shelves") underneath the toolbar. The software will automatically create a visualization of the data for you. If you want to create a different type of chart, look to the left where it says "Marks" and use the drop-down menu to pick whatever sort of visualization you want.
You can customize your visualization in many ways to get it just how you want it. For instance, if you right-click on a type of data in the data pane and select "Show Filter," you'll see options for selecting which specific data is displayed in your chart. You can also try dragging any type of data to the Color button on the Marks card to change its color. Or you can click on Color and choose "Edit Colors" to pick a whole different color palette for your chart. By using different filters and colors, you can drill down into your data and make the insights you uncover easy to see for others.
Once you've made one chart, you'll surely want to create more. Tableau is organized using workbooks and sheets, just like Microsoft Excel, and you can add new sheets by choosing Worksheet in the top menu and then selecting New Worksheet. Then, repeat the same steps you used before to create your new visualization.
Once you create your visualizations, you'll likely want to be able to see more than one of them at once. To do this, choose Dashboard in the top menu, then choose New Dashboard. Now, drag all of the sheets you want to see from the left pane into the middle of your workspace. You can even drag one sheet on top of another to integrate their data into one chart.
It's great to be able to explore your data with Tableau but to get the most out of what you find, you'll need to be able to share what you see in Tableau to guide others to take action. To do this, you can create a story. In the top menu, choose Story and then New Story. Then, you can drag sheets or dashboards from the data pane and manipulate them to create a full presentation. You can also share your full workbook with others by publishing it to the Tableau Server. Just choose Server in the top menu and then click Publish Workbook to be able to upload a custom view of your data that you can share with coworkers in other locations.
While this should give you a good Tableau introduction, there's a lot more to learn to get the most value out of this software. You'll get a much clearer understanding of Tableau when you take a professionally designed Tableau training course. At Cerstaffix Training, we can help you learn everything you need to know about Tableau as quickly and easily as possible. Whether you want to take our basic course to get a comprehensive introduction to Tableau or you want to go further with our advanced class, you'll be able to take advantage of the benefits of having a knowledgeable instructor there to help you through the material. Our live Tableau training classes include hands-on activities to maximize learning, so you can master the ins and outs of data visualization in just a few days. Whether you have some experience with the software or are a complete Tableau beginner, we can guide you toward a deeper understanding of how you can make a huge impact on your company's bottom line through improved business intelligence. Sign up to get started today!