Tableau – Navigation

Tableau is the easy-to-use Business Intelligence tool used in data visualization. Its unique feature is, to
allow data real-time collaboration and data blending, etc. Through Tableau, users can connect databases,
files, and other big data sources and can create a shareable dashboard through them. Tableau is mainly
used by researchers, professionals, and government organizations for data analysis and visualization.
In the Tableau, we can see various buttons on the top menu. They are known as navigational buttons. In
the article, we are going to discuss these navigational features/buttons present in the Tableau interface.
The main navigational features are –
1. File menu
2. Data menu
3. Worksheet menu
4. Dashboard menu
5. Story menu
6. Analysis menu
7. Map menu
8. Format menu
File Menu
File Menu is used to create a new Tableau workbook. It is also used to open existing workbooks from
both the local system and Tableau server. The main features of the File menu are –
• New: It is used to generate a new file.
• Open: It is used to open a previously saved file.
• Save: As the name suggests, it will save the file.
• Workbook Locale: It is used to set the language which will be used in the report.
• Paste Sheets: It is used to copy sheets from one workbook and paste it into another workbook.
• Export Packaged Workbook: It is used to produce a packaged workbook and share it with other
users.
• Page setup: It is used for setting up a page.
• Print and print PDF: It will help to print the workbook.
Data Menu
The Data Menu helps in creating a new data source that fetches the data for analysis and visualization.
The user can replace and upgrade the existing data source with the help of the Data menu. The main
features of the Data menu are –
• New Data Source: It is used to view all types of available connections and choose from them.
• Refresh All Extracts: As the name suggests, it is used to refresh the data from the source.
• Edit Relationships: It is used to define the fields in more than one data source for linking.
• Replace data source: It is used to characterize the fields which have more than one information
hotspot for connection.
Worksheet Menu
The Worksheet Menu helps in creating a new worksheet in addition to various display features like
showing the title and captions, etc. The main features of the Worksheet menu are –
• New worksheet: It is used to generate a new worksheet.
• Show Summary: As the name suggests, it allows the user to view the summary of the data used
in the worksheet
• Tooltip: It is used to show the tooltip when hovering over various data fields.
• Run Update: It helps in updating the worksheet data or any filters used.
Dashboard Menu
The Dashboard Menu helps in creating a new dashboard in addition to various display features, like
showing the title and exporting the image, etc. The main features of the Dashboard menu are –
• Format: It is used in setting the layout in terms of colors and sections of the dashboard.
• Actions: It helps in linking the dashboard sheets to external URLs or other sheets.
• Export Image: It is used to export the images of the Dashboard.
Story Menu
The Story Menu helps in creating a new story that has sheets and dashboards with related data. The main
features of the Story menu are –
• Format: It helps to set the layout in terms of colors and sections of the story.
• Run Update: As the name suggests, it updates the story with the latest data from the data source.
• Export Image: It helps to export the images of the story.
• Show backward/show forward: It helps to look at the older worksheets.
Analysis Menu
The Analysis Menu helps in analyzing the data present in the Tableau sheet. Tableau has many unique
features, like calculating the percentage and performing a forecast, etc. The main features of the Analysis
menu are –
• Forecast: It is used to show the forecast based on available data.
• Trend Lines: It is used to show the trend line for a series of data.
• Create Calculated Field: It is used to produce new fields based on certain calculations on the
existing fields.
• Percentage: It is used to calculate the percentage of any given data.
• Special value: It helps to take input of a special kind of value.
Map Menu
As the name shows, Map Menu is used to build map views in Tableau. The user can assign geographic
roles to fields in the given data source. The main features of the Map menu are –
• Map Layers: It is used to hides and show map layers, like street names, country borders, etc.
• Geocoding: It helps in creating new geographic roles and assign them to the geographic fields in
the given data source.
• Background image: It is used to set the image in the background.
Format Menu
The Format Menu is used to apply various formatting options to enhance the look of the dashboard. It has
many features like borders, colors, alignment of text, etc. The main features of the Format menu are –
• Borders: It is used to form borders to the fields displayed in the report.
• Title & Caption: It is used to add the title and caption to the reports.
• Cell Size: It is used to customize the size of the cells.
• Workbook Theme: It provides a theme to the entire workbook.
• Font: It sets the font in the workbook.
we will introduce the Start Page and its features in Tableau. For this first look into two terms :
• Tableau: Tableau is a very powerful data visualization tool that can be used by data analysts,
scientists, statisticians, etc. to visualize the data and get a clear opinion based on the data analysis.
Tableau is very famous as it can take in data and produce the required data visualization output in
a very short time.
• Start Page: The Start Page in Tableau is the central location to Connect or Extract Data for your
report, and Opens recently used Workbooks.
Start Page
The start page in Tableau Desktop could also be a central location from which you’ll do the following:
• Connect to your data
• Open your last used workbooks, and
• Discover and explore content produced by the Tableau community.
The start page consists of three panes: Connect, Open, and Discover.
Connect
• Connect to data and open saved data sources.
• On the Connect pane, you’ll do the following:
o Connect to data:
o Under To a File, attach with data stored in Microsoft Excel files, text files,
Access files, Tableau extract files, and statistical files, like SAS, SPSS, and R.
o Under To a Server, attach with data stored in databases like Microsoft SQL
Server or Oracle.
o The server names listed during this section change supported which servers you
attach with and therefore the way often.
o Open saved data sources:
o Quickly open data sources that you simply have previously saved to your My
Tableau Repository directory.
o Also, Tableau provides sample saved data sources that you simply can use to
explore Tableau Desktop functionality.
o To follow in conjunction with examples within the Tableau Desktop
documentation, you’ll usually use the Sample – Superstore data source.
Open
• Open recent workbooks, pin workbooks to the start page, and explore sample workbooks.
• On the Open pane, you’ll do the following:
o Open recently opened workbooks:
o Once you open Tableau Desktop for the primary time, this pane is empty.
o As you create and save new workbooks, the foremost recently opened workbooks
appear here.
o Click the workbook thumbnail to open a workbook, or if you are doing not see a
workbook thumbnail, click the Open a Workbook link to hunt out other
workbooks that are saved to your computer.
o Pin workbooks:
o You’ll pin workbooks to the beginning page by clicking the pin icon that appears
within the top-left corner of the workbook thumbnail.
o Pinned workbooks always appear on the start page, albeit they weren’t opened
recently. to get rid of a recently opened or pinned workbook, hover over the
workbook thumbnail, then click the “x” that appears.
o The workbook thumbnail is removed immediately but will show again alongside
your last used workbooks subsequent time you open Tableau Desktop.
o Explore sample workbooks:
o Open and explore sample workbooks.
•
• Now below is a brief explanation of each step followed:
• 1. Connect to Data Source
• The first step is to connect the data source to Tableau. Tableau can connect to
nearly every data sources like text files, relational sources, SQL sources, or
cloud databases, etc. There is an inbuilt connector in Tableau to establish a
link with data sources.
• 2. Build Data Views
• The next step is to build views, which are also known as reports. After
connecting to the data source, we have columns of data set in the Tableau
 environment. There is a certain drag and drop feature in Tableau to build
views.
• 3. Enhance the Views
• Now views are created, the next step is to enhance them further by using
filters, aggregations, labeling of axes, formatting of colors and borders, etc.
• Video Player
•
• 4. Create Worksheets
• On worksheets, we can build different views of the data set. All analyzes of
the data set are performed on worksheets.
• Video Player
• 5. Create and Organize Dashboards
• The dashboard is built by linking more than one worksheet. The worksheets
must be organized properly so that the Dashboard will look informative and
attractive.
•
• 6. Create a Story
• When a sheet containing a sequence of worksheets or dashboards come
together to convey information, it is known as Story. Stories are created to
show how facts are connected, provide context, demonstrate an analyzed
report, etc. It is the last step of the Tableau design flow diagram.

Tableau – File System

Although it is very easy to use Tableau, there is a lot going behind the scene. There are many different file
types that support the smooth working of Tableau. This structure of files makes it easy and reliable to
perform the visualization tasks. The types of Tableau files are listed as –
Tableau Workbook (.twb):
These kind of files stores visualization without the source data. It means the user can visualize the data
using different charts and store it in the workbook but cannot store the data along with the visualization.
To open a workbook – Go to File > Open > Select Workbook. The workbook can also be present on your
dashboard as in the image shown below.
Tableau Data Source (.tds):
It works opposite to the Tableau workbook; it stores the data but only a link without the visualization
attached. It stores the password, server-address and any other information required to access the data
source.

Tableau Bookmark (.tbm):

It is a very useful file type. It stores a connection to a workbook in another Tableau Workbook. So, if the
user has already created a visualization in one workbook then there is no need to recreate it in another
workbook.

Tableau Data Extract (.tde):

It stores the Tableau data as a filtered and aggregated extract. So even if the source data files have
thousands of rows of data, you can store the summary version of it.
Tableau Package Workbook (.twbx):
It stores the extracted data and visualization for viewing in Tableau or Tableau Reader.

Tableau – Data Types

Tableau is the easy-to-use Business Intelligence tool used in data visualization. Its unique feature is, to
allow data real-time collaboration and data blending, etc. Through Tableau, users can connect databases,
files, and other big data sources and can create a shareable dashboard through them. Tableau is mainly
used by researchers, professionals, and government organizations for data analysis and visualization.
The data type classifies the data value into its definite type, some may be characters (eg- ‘Vansh’), some
may be integers (eg- 108), and some may be floating type (eg- 1.854), etc. In this way, every data value
lies under certain data types. Tableau too has a set of data types under which it classifies data value
present in it as field values.
In Tableau, we have seven primary data types. The function of Tableau is to automatically detect the data
types of various fields, as soon as the data is uploaded from the source and allocate it to the fields. These
seven data types are:
1. String values
2. Number/Integer values
3. Date values
4. Date & Time values
5. Boolean values
6. Geographic values
7. Cluster or mixed values
In Tableau, every data type is denoted by a specific icon is displayed in the table given below:

DATA TYPE ICON

String Values

Integer Values
DATA TYPE ICON

Date Value

Date & Time Value

Boolean Value

Geographic Value

Cluster group or Mixed Value

Now let us discuss all these data types in detail:

i) String Data type: The collection of characters give rise to the string data type. A string is always
enclosed within a single or double inverted comma. The samples of the string are — “Vansh”, “Hi! How
are you?”,
We can divide String data type into two types, Char and Varchar.
• Char string type- Char data type normally stores alphanumeric data values having fixed lengths.
If the user enters a string value which is greater than the fixed length of the Char data type, then
the system returns an error.
• Varchar string type- Varchar data type also stores alphanumeric data values. As the name
suggests, Varchar stores data values having a variable length. So, the user can enter as many
string values as they want, without facing any restriction from the system.
ii) Numeric Data type: This data type consists of both integer type or floating type. Out of which users
prefer to use integer type over floating type, as it is difficult to accumulate the decimal point after a
certain limit. It also contains a function known as the Round() function which can be used in rounding up
float values.
iii) Date and Time Data type: Tableau supports all forms of date and time like dd-mm-yy, or mm-dd-
yyyy, etc. And the time data values can be in the form of a decade, year, quarter, month, hour, minutes,
seconds, etc. Whenever the user enters data and time values, Tableau automatically registers it
under Date data type and Date & Time data value.
iv) Boolean Data type: As a result of relational calculations, boolean data type values are formed. The
boolean data values are either True or False. Many a time the result of a relational calculation is unknown,
in this situation Null data values are used.
v) Geographic Data type: All values that are used in maps, comes under geographic data type. The
example of geographic data values is country name, state name, city, region, postal codes, etc.
vi) Cluster or Mixed Data type: Sometimes data set contains values having a mixture of data types.
Such values are known as cluster group values or mixed data values. In such a situation, users have the
option either to handle it manually or allow Tableau to operate on it.

How to change Data type in Tableau?

Tableau is the easy-to-use Business Intelligence tool used in data visualization. Its unique feature is, to
allow data real-time collaboration and data blending, etc. Through Tableau, users can connect databases,
files, and other big data sources and can create a shareable dashboard through them. Tableau is mainly
used by researchers, professionals, and government organizations for data analysis and visualization.
In Tableau, we basically have 7 Data types as mentioned below:
• String values
• Number values
• Date values
• Date & Time values
• Boolean values
• Geographic values
• Cluster or mixed values
Normally, Tableau detects and allocate data types to all fields in a freshly uploaded data set. But, users
have the equal right to modify the data types at many stages in Tableau.
We are going to discuss three major ways in which users can change the data types of existing data
fields:
1. Changing data type of fields in the Data Source page:
In order to change the data type of field from the data source, the first step is to click on the field’s data
type icon. As a result, a drop-down list will emerge, now choose a new data type and allot it to the values
of that field.
In the above image, the data type of the ‘User Id‘ field is ‘Number (whole)‘. Let’s change its data type
from Number to String.

It is clearly visible that the data type of the ‘User Id’ field is changed from Number to String.
2. Changing data type of field from Data pane:
Suppose the user doesn’t want to disturb the data source but still wishes to change the data type of fields,
then there exists another option. The user can easily modify the data types from the Data pane of
Tableau. The first step is to click on the field’s data type icon. As a result, a drop-down list will emerge,
now choose a new data type and apply it to the values of that field.
In the above image, the data type of field ‘Name‘ is ‘String’. Let’s change it to Boolean.

It is clearly visible that the data type of the ‘Name’ field is changed from String to Boolean
3. Changing the data type of field in the View:
And, the last option to change the data type of fields is through Views. The first step is to Right-
click the field and then choose Change Data Type from the drop-down list. Now a new list will be
opened, select a new data type and apply it to the values of that field.

In the above image, the data type of the ‘Location‘ field is ‘String‘. Let’s change it to Date & Time.
It is clearly visible that the data type of the ‘Location’ field is changed from String to Date & Time.

Show Me in Tableau

In this article, we will see Show Me option and features associated with it in Tableau.
• Tableau: Tableau is a very powerful data visualization tool that can be used by data analysts,
scientists, statisticians, etc. to visualize the data and get a clear opinion based on the data analysis.
Tableau is very famous as it can take in data and produce the required data visualization output in
a very short time.
• Show Me: Show Me window holds the most commonly used charts in Tableau. You can use any
of these charts to view the data. Click Show Me on the toolbar to open this window, as we have
shown below.
Steps to generate various illustrations from Show Me window in Tableau:
• Open Tableau tool and click on Show start Page.
 • Click on Show Me Option to view features.

Here you will get different types of charts and graphs listed below:
 Text Label Symbol Maps Horizontal Bars Tree Map

Heat Map Maps Stacked Bars Circle Views

Side-by-Side Circle
Highlight Table Pie Charts Side-by-Side Bars
Views

Line Chart Discrete Lines Dual Lines Area Chart

Dual Combination
Discrete Area Chart Scatter Plot Histograms
Chart

Box and Whisker

Gantt Chart Bullet Graph Packed Bubbles Chart
Plots

To use different graphs and charts one should follow some steps:
• Click on Show Me

• Hover over a graph/ chart you want to use.

• See the requirements
 • Fulfill the requirements
• At last click on it.

In this way, one can use any feature of Show Me option in Tableau.
Below are some illustrations which can be generated from the Show Me window:
• Packed Bubbles:
• Scatter Plots:

• Symbol Maps:

• Text Table:
• Tree Map: