1. Five Things I Wish I Knew the
First Day I Used Tableau
Presented by:
Ryan Sleeper
Director, Data Visualization
Evolytics

2. What to Expect
• Introduction
• Purpose
• Audience
• Five Things
• Q&A
2

3. 3
Ryan Sleeper
Director, Data Visualization
Evolytics

4. 4
My Learning Curve

5. 5
If I had only known…

6. 1. Tableau Licenses

7. Tableau Licenses
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Which Tableau license is best for me?
(and why is this so confusing?!)
Your choice depends on:
(1) Connectivity
(2) Distribution
(3) Automation
(4) Security

8. Tableau Public
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Connectivity
• TDE, Access, Excel, Text File
Distribution
• Cloud
Automation
• Not available
Security
• None – your data is accessible by anyone on the Internet
Price: Free

9. Tableau Public
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Best for
• Journalists
• Sharing publicly available data (and Tableau know-how) with
the world
• Practicing Tableau for free
• Trying the software

10. Tableau Desktop: Personal
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Connectivity
• TDE, Access, Excel, Text File
Distribution
• Offline or Tableau Public
Automation
• Not available
Security
• As good as your personal computer / server’s security
Price: $1000 for year one; $200 for year two+

11. Tableau Desktop: Personal
Best for
• Those that only need to connect to flat data files
• Those that need the most cost-effective version that will keep
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their data private

12. Tableau Desktop: Professional
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Connectivity
• All possible connections in Tableau
Distribution
• Offline, Tableau Server, or Tableau Public (all possible
distribution options in Tableau)
Automation
• Not available
Security
• As good as your personal computer / server’s security
Price: $2000 for year one; $400 for year two+

13. Tableau Desktop: Professional
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Best for
• Those that need to connect to data in databases
• Those that need the capability to publish to Tableau Server

14. Tableau Server (Interactor)
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Connectivity
• Workbooks that have been published to Tableau Server and
that you have been granted access to
Distribution
• Tableau Server (cloud)
Automation
• Available on schedules or intervals
Security
• As good as your hosting provider’s
Price: $1000 for year one; $200 for year two+; 10 license minimum

15. Tableau Server (Interactor)
Best for
• Those that need to access / distribute workbooks in the cloud
• Those that want to automate workbook refreshes
• Those that want to edit workbooks in the cloud (limited
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capability)

16. 2. Shaping Data

17. Shaping Data
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Common Data Layout
Sweet Excel Table
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Sales $ $ $ $ $$$
Profit $ $ $ $ $$$
Orders # # # # ###

18. Shaping Data
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Ideal Data Layout
Quarter Sales Profit Orders
Q1 $ $ #
Q2 $ $ #
Q3 $ $ #
Q4 $ $ #
Google: “Preparing Excel Files for Analysis”

19. Shaping Data
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Ideal Data Layout
Date Quarter Sales Profit Orders
1/1/2014 Q1 $ $ #
4/1/2014 Q2 $ $ #
7/1/2014 Q3 $ $ #
10/1/2014 Q4 $ $ #
Google: “Preparing Excel Files for Analysis”

20. 3. Dimension vs. Measure

21. Dimension vs. Measure
Measure:
A measure is a field that is a dependent variable; that is,
its value is a function of one or more dimensions.
Tableau treats any field containing numeric (quantitative)
information as a measure.
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Sales
Source: Tableau Knowledge Base

22. Dimension vs. Measure
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Dimension:
A dimension is a field that can be considered an
independent variable.
By default, Tableau treats any field containing qualitative,
categorical information as a dimension.
Sales
Source: Tableau Knowledge Base

23. 4. Discrete vs. Continuous

24. Discrete vs. Continuous
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25. Discrete vs. Continuous
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Discrete draws headers.
Continuous draws axes.

26. Discrete vs. Continuous
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Sales by Month: Discrete

27. Discrete vs. Continuous
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Sales by Month: Continuous

28. 5. Corporate Chart Types

29. Sparklines
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30. Small Multiples
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31. Bullet Graphs
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32. Thank You and Q&A
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Slides:
Evolytics.com/5Things
Resources:
Evolytics.com/Tableau201
Google: “Tableau 201”
Ryan Sleeper
@OSMGuy
rsleeper@evolytics.com