Book Image

Getting Started with Tableau 2019.2 - Second Edition

By : Tristan Guillevin
Book Image

Getting Started with Tableau 2019.2 - Second Edition

By: Tristan Guillevin

Overview of this book

Tableau is one of the leading data visualization tools and is regularly updated with new functionalities and features. The latest release, Tableau 2019.2, promises new and advanced features related to visual analytics, reporting, dashboarding, and a host of other data visualization aspects. Getting Started with Tableau 2019.2 will get you up to speed with these additional functionalities. The book starts by highlighting the new functionalities of Tableau 2019.2, providing concrete examples of how to use them. However, if you're new to Tableau, you won't have to worry as the book also covers the major aspects of Tableau with relevant examples. You'll learn how to connect to data, build a data source, visualize your data, build a dashboard, and even share data online. In the concluding chapters, you'll delve into advanced techniques such as creating a cross-database join and data blending. By the end of this book, you will be able to use Tableau effectively to create quick, cost-effective, and business-efficient Business Intelligence (BI) solutions.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
15
Index

Building Dashboards is definitely one of the most important aspects of using Tableau Desktop. Fortunately, building a simple Dashboard is also something very easy and enjoyable to do. In the process of always making our life easier, Tableau has developed a few very nice new features.

The first important new feature is the ability to show or hide a container with a totally new button.

If you are not new to Tableau, I'm sure you've already made (or had to make) a Dashboard with lots of filters and legends. You know, something that looks like this:

Show/Hide containers (2019.2)

Rejoice, because this is over! You can now add a toggle button to containers, allowing you and your user to show or hide it at will. There's only one condition at the moment, which is that the container needs to be floating.

Adding a toggle button is quite easy: select the containers (with the Select Container option when you click on an item, or use the Item hierarchy in the Layout pane), then select Add toggle button from the container options. A default toggle button is automatically added to your Dashboard. Among the button options, you'll find the ability to Show or Hide the container and edit it with the Edit Button… option.

If you click on Edit Button… a new window will open. Here, you can choose what Dashboard element will be impacted by the button, the Button Style (image or text), and the Button Appearance. The Button Appearance part lets you choose the Image (or Title and Font), Border, Background, and Tooltip when the item is currently shown or hidden.

Let's create an example together. We will use this new feature to enhance the example that was provided at the beginning of this section.

Unzip the ToggleButtonStart.zip file and you'll find a Tableau Packaged Workbook that is the start of the example:

  1. Open the ToggleButtonStart.twbx workbook.
  2. Select the filters and legend container, either by double-clicking on the grip part or using the Select Containers option of the items, or by using the Item hierarchy in the Layout pane. You should see the entire horizontal container with a blue outline, like this:
    Show/Hide containers (2019.2)
  3. Go to the option using the descending arrow and select Floating.
  4. Using the grip part, move the containers at the top left. Then, by selecting the left border, increase its width, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Show/Hide containers (2019.2)
  5. Click on the arrow to option the container options and select Add Show/Hide button.
  6. You can now use this button to show and hide the container with the filters and legends. To finalize the Dashboard, you can move the button next to the title, increase its size, and add a tooltip among the button options. Here's the final result:
Show/Hide containers (2019.2)

This new feature allows everyone to build clearer and more efficient Dashboards. The next feature is really simple to understand and use, but will definitely help you save a lot of time.