Introducing the Tableau Desktop Workspace

Using the Work space Controls Effectively

If you are accustomed to working with spreadsheets or other analysis tools, learning Tableau’s desktop environment will be a breeze. If you have no familiarity with database terminology or spreadsheets you can still be effectively using Tableau within a few hours.

The Start Page and Data Connection Page

Open Tableau and you’ll be presented with the start page displayed in Figure 1-4. Notice the small tabs in the upper-right side of the screen. The Home button with the orange house icon should be highlighted.

On the left side, the data window presents connection options. If you click on Connect to Data you’ll be taken to the data connection work-space. You can also access this page by clicking on the hard disk icon tab next to the Start button. If you need to connect to one of the data sources listed in the On a Server section, you must to go to Tableau’s website and download a connector for the desired database. Downloading a connector requires less than a minute if you have a decent web connection. Learn for more details about tableau from tableau online training

There is no limit to the number of data connection drivers you can install, but some vendors require that you validate a valid license to their software before downloading their connector. On the right side of the Connect to the Data page, you will see saved data connections. Tableau provides four as sample data for learning. Any other connections you have saved (.tds files) are displayed there as well. Return to the Home button and look at the Workbooks area in the start page.

The Workbooks area saves the last nine workbooks you’ve opened. If you want to keep a workbook there that you use frequently, hover over the workbook image and click on the pushpin. That will prevent the workbook from being cycled out of view. Figure 1-5 displays a workbook related to this chapter that I want to keep on my start page.

To remove saved workbooks from the start page click on the red X that appears when you hover over the workbook’s image. At the bottom of the start page, the Getting Started area provides links to training videos and promotional materials. The sample workbook area provides links to sample workbooks containing excellent example material to visit tableau Certification

Clicking on More Samples takes you to Tableau’s visual gallery on the web with even more example workbooks.

Multiple Worksheet Page

There are two more workspace icons on the start page. The one with four gray boxes aligned in a square displays all of the worksheets in the workbook. There is a workbook with all the examples This is the “slide-deck” view--it looks like PowerPoint’s slide sorter view.

You can reorder worksheet tabs by dragging them to the desired position. Double-clicking will open that worksheet. If you have to give a presentation using a workbook with many worksheets, and you want the transitions from worksheet to worksheet to instantly appear, right-click while pointing anywhere in the page and select the (Refresh All Thumbnail) option. This will cause Tableau to update every view in the workbook and will make transitions to new worksheets appear instantly. This is particularly helpful if your data source contains large files.