There are currently eight kinds of Tableau available with different features, capabilities, and price points. This article will explore Tableau Online and provide several tips for more effectively using this platform.

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What is Tableau?

Tableau is the fastest-growing platform for visual analytics on the market. It allows users to simplify raw data into a format that’s easy to access and understand by those working at any level of an organization. Even non-technical Tableau users can create customized dashboards and worksheets with the help of this versatile tool. It’s relied on by teachers, students, Data Scientists, Data Analysts, executives, and business owners for their end-to-end analytics needs. This is why Tableau is considered to be the leading analytics platform for business intelligence.

Since its founding in 2003, Tableau has evolved from a computer science project of students at Stanford into one of the most widely used data visualization tools in existence. Tableau was created as a way to improve analysis flow and use visualizations to make data more accessible. This value continues to inform Tableau’s evolution. Currently, Tableau offers a complete and integrated platform for data analytics. It provides its customers with the necessary resources to help them thrive in a data-driven culture.

What is Tableau Online?

Tableau Online is a paid analytics platform that is hosted in the cloud. Tableau Online users can publish dashboards and share them with anyone they choose. For organizations that value launching quickly and at scale without having to manage infrastructure or hardware, Tableau Online provides a good option. 

Some of the perks of working with Tableau Online are:

  • Tableau Online makes it easy to set up, use, and manage content on a variety of mobile devices.
  • Tableau maintains the system and hardware outside of the user’s firewall.
  • Company logos can be uploaded into Tableau Online for custom branding.
  • When working with Tableau Online, live data connections are supported to Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, and SQL-based sources that are hosted on cloud platforms.

6 Tips for Using Tableau Online

The following seven tips are for Tableau Online users looking to have an improved experience with this platform:

  • Become a site administrator. A site administrator is the one tasked with designing and maintaining a framework for Tableau Desktop users within your organization to use for publishing, sharing, and connecting workbooks and data sources. The following steps are helpful for those interested in becoming site administrators:
      1. Upload your company logo
      2. Configure site access
      3. Create projects
      4. Establish permissions structure
      5. Add users
      6. Put data on Tableau Online
      7. Review site usage and performance
  • Establish your organization’s publishing needs. Before a site is open by an administrator for publishing, it’s important to decide how much preparation is required for using Tableau Online. Organizations that don’t have rigid data access requirements may consider beginning this process with Tableau’s Publishing resources, which include steps for publishing. Content management practices can then be adjusted as needed. In organizations where many people are using Tableau, Publishing resources can be used to establish a test environment in which any glitches can be caught before granting site access to a large population of active users.
  • Edit web views. If the “Edit” button appears when looking at a Tableau Online view, this indicates that it’s possible to make changes. In order to edit a view that’s already been published, users should:
      1. First, sign into a site.
      2. Open the workbook containing the view that should be edited, or select “All Views” from the Explore page.
      3. Select “Edit” from the view toolbar so that the view can be displayed in web authoring mode.
      4. Perform any necessary edits.
      5. Save changes.
  • Share views. Once your workbook has been published on Tableau online, you can choose to share it with others. This can be easily done by sharing a link to your published workbook. To do so, Tableau users click the “share” icon in the toolbar, then copy and paste the link into an email that can be sent to desired recipients. In addition, users can save the highlights and filters they’ve created in Tableau online. In order to save their custom view, select the “Original View” button from the toolbar, provide a name for your custom view, and save it. Any person who has access to the dashboard can see your custom view if they choose it from the Original View menu.
  • Publish data sources & workbooks. Those who want to publish a workbook or data connection in Tableau Online must first open it in Tableau Desktop, then head to the Server menu in order to begin the publication process. First, it’s important to decide how those in your organization will access workbooks and data sources. Then, corresponding guidelines for publishing can be established. It’s possible to publish data sources and workbooks via live or extract connections to a database. In addition, multi-connection data sources that use either/both direct or extract connections can also be published. Keep in mind that there is a 100 GB storage limit for extracts and workbooks on a site. This limit is not configurable. The following are the connector types that can support live connections to Tableau Online:
      1. On-premises relational data, like Oracle or SQL Server, in which Tableau Bridge is used to ensure the connection.
      2. Amazon Redshift data, Google BigQuery, or SQL-based data hosted on a cloud platform. In order to establish direct connections to cloud data, users should make sure that Tableau online is added to their data provider’s authorized list.
  • Add colleagues to your site. After your analytics have been published, you will likely want to share them. In order for colleagues to view your workbooks, they must be added as a user to your Tableau Online site. In order to do so, go back to your browser, choose the “Users” tab, and select the “Add User” button. Here, you can enter the email addresses of anyone who should see your analytics. Keep in mind that there is a limit to how many people can be invited to your site. If you reach the quota count and still wish to add additional viewers, simply select the “Users” tab and remove or edit users. Another option is to contact the account manager, who can increase the quota.

Hands-On Tableau Classes

For those who want to learn how to create stunning and engaging data visualizations, maps, charts, and graphs, Noble Desktop’s Tableau classes provide a great option. These small group classes are available in-person in NYC, as well as in the live online format. Tableau-focused courses teach students skills like how to spot the most optimal datasets to connect to, as well as how to analyze, filter, structure, and visually represent data.

In addition, a variety of live online Tableau courses are also currently available from top training providers. These interactive classes are taught in real-time and provide all learners with access to an instructor who is live and ready to provide feedback and answer questions. Courses are offered for novice Tableau users, as well as those with more advanced data visualization skills. Classes range from seven hours to five days in duration and cost $299-$2,199.

Those who are interested in finding nearby Tableau classes can use Noble’s Tableau Classes Near Me tool. This handy tool provides an easy way to locate and browse more than three dozen of the best Tableau classes currently offered in the in-person and live online formats so that all interested learners can find the course that works best for them.