Tableau Tutorial for Beginners: A Complete Guide

Introduction

When you talk about data visualization tactics then the first word that strikes your mind is Tableau. I am guessing why you might be here reading about Tableau and how it can help you with data visualization in the best possible way. You must have heard of the advantages of Tableau, this is the right time to explore more about Tableau.

So here in this tableau tutorial for beginners we are going to discuss in detail about tableau public and list of data visualizations and a complete list of popular Data Visualization Tools.

The concept of Tableau can always be best understood by reading the data visualization concepts first. So, let us start our discussion with a quick introduction to Data Visualization and a complete list of popular Data Visualization Tools.

Let’s begin with tableau online tutorial

Tableau Tutorial for Beginners - What is Data Visualization?

Data Visualization is considered one of the important aspects of data analysis. This is always important presenting data in an easy and most appealing format. This is one of the important skills that are necessary to master by data scientists to achieve the business goals quickly. Let us take the concept a little deeper ahead.

According to SiliconAngle, more than 50 zettabytes of data has been produced by the end of 2017. Data is mostly produced by websites or cross-platform transactions. This is taken as the fact that more than 20 billion smart devices are connected with the Internet as of today and the number could be more baffling.

With data analysis, you could understand better about end-users. In brief, data visualization bridges the gap between users and products with effective visualization and data summary. In the example given below, there are four tables and their corresponding graphs are also given below.

With the help of a graph, you can quickly find how data is arranged together and which type of pattern among data values. With the right information, this is always easy making decisions and putting the efforts in the right direction.

Tableau Basics Tutorial Guide - A Complete List of Data Visualization Tools

1. Tableau: The basic version of this data analytics tool is available for free that can be used for plenty of regular tasks like effective analysis of sales data, monitoring the user density, a close eye on budget expenses, consumer segmentation, and dividing data into categories and subcategories ahead.
2. Microsoft Excel: This is an entry-level tool helping you to complete different complex tasks. This is easy with MS Excel exploring data, creating tables and visualizations for the web use but a limited set of colors and style make it less suitable for professional websites.
3. DOMO: This tool is specially designed for technical users and helping them in effective decision-making too. DOMO is the first open-source cloud platform to manage the data for an entire organization. It will combine users, data, and insights together to make more informed decisions that not only improves performance but helps you to find answers to tough business problems.
4. QlikView: This is one of the amazing data analytics tools discovered by the Qlik. The problem is that the tool is not able to create effective visualizations as created by other tools but you can always analyze the data in multiple dimensions. Further, this tool is able to work with operating BI environments like monitoring or financial transactions etc.
5. Microsoft Power BI – This is a cloud-based business analytics platform that gives you a complete overview of the critical data. When you are connected with multiple data sources then the tool simplified the data evaluation with interactive dashboards, embedded visuals or more.

Read: How To Create A Line Chart In Tableau?

Once you discussed all popular tools in brief, now the question comes which tools should you use for your organization. I must say Tableau is just an amazing choice here. Here is given in more detail why Tableau?

Why should you choose Tableau?

Visualizations: When you are connected with multiple data sources, it is easier to visualize large datasets than it is done by the Microsoft Power BI. You just have to download the data worksheet and apply various visualizations to the data. Further, this is always easy switching between multiple visualizations and find the most significant solution that suits your organization the most. Also, visualizations can be created with multiple colors, style, and labels as needed by professional websites.

Discover Critical business Solution: The tool helps you to analyze the data in-depth and investigate the data visualizations. You can also check the basic trends or predictions hypothetically and the dynamic data too for quick comparisons.

Automation Features: Tableau is just an intuitive platform in making calculations or predictions. When calculations are performed on a table it can be applied to all data sources and this is easy to analyze and work with recurring processes. The tool is highly flexible in helping users in creating custom reports and this feature is not available in most of the tools.

Effective Implementation: The implementation process of the tool is divided into four major steps and the deployments are just a matter of hours with Tableau.

Native Connectors: The tool has plenty of native connectors to clean, pull, and organize data from multiple sources. Tableau extracts large datasets by two methods mainly – Live Connection and In-Memory. It also has an open database connection ODBC, if you are not interested in using native connectors.

Tableau Basics – The Product Family of Tool

The five popular products of Tableau familiar are Tableau Desktop, Tableau Reader, Tableau Server, Tableau Public, and Tableau Online. Let us discuss each of the products one be one in detail below -

Read: How to create a parameter and use it?

A). Tableau Desktop

This is a more powerful business analytics tool that can be used by almost anyone. It can translate the picture into optimized queries and you can connect with data directly for live data analysis. Also, you could perform queries on the database with a single line of code. In brief, you had the flexibility of importing data from multiple sources by combining multiple views within an interactive dashboard.

B). Tableau Reader

This is a free desktop application that helps you in enabling visualizations built on the Tableau Desktop. Also, you could drill or filter the data but you cannot edit data or perform any type of interaction.

C). Tableau Server

This is an enterprise-level software where you could Dashboards with Tableau Desktop and spread them with the help of Tableau Server. It has the capability of leveraging databases with Live Connections. Tableau developed the server so that all the functionalities can be done for tableau and it helps to hold the data with the available memory. If you want to know more about tableau server, you can visit Janbask Training and will find tableau server tutorial in detail.

D). Tableau Online

This is the hosted version of Tableau Server useful for making BI much faster and easier than earlier. To share the published Desktop with colleagues, this hosted version is actually helpful.

E). Tableau Public

Read: A Brief Introduction to Data Visualization in Tableau

This is again a free Tableau product that is needed to make visualizations and helps you in saving worksheets within Tableau Server that can be viewed or accessed by almost anyone.

Tableau Public is for anyone who is interested in understanding the data and sharing that data with the world. Journalists, bloggers, any student, and many more can work with tableau public.

Understanding Tableau in Little More Detail

Let us start our discussion with Tableau Data Types that are supported by the software. Refer to the diagram below for a quick look at popular data types in Tableau. Now data types can be further categorized as Measures or Dimensions. A measure is usually a number and Dimension is text. In simple words, Dimensions are needed to add more details to describe the data in detail.

How should you use Tableau?

There are three popular mantras that will help you in understanding Tableau better –

1. The first thing in Tableau is to connect with data. You can either connect to a local file or you could connect to a server as well.
   • The list of local files or databases is defined as the Excel, Access, Text File, statistical file, or any other database file.
   • With a local connection, you can always speed up the data processing.
   • With Tableau, you can connect to any data server too like Tableau Server, Google Analytics, SAP, SQL and more.
   • Further, you could make Live Connection where any changes to the source file will be directly reflected in Tableau.
   • There are different types of data joins too for better insights and they could be given as below –
2. You had the option to play around the UI. There are plenty of options to edit your visualizations and you can use any of them at per your convenience.
   • There is a pane to create visualizations in Tableau that further helps in presenting the data well.
   • The File Menu is used to create new Tableau worksheets from the local Tableau system and Tableau server.
   • There is one Data Menu to fetch data, analyze data, and create visualizations. It also helps in replacing existing data sources.
   • There is one Worksheet Menu to play around the options like Title or Captions etc.
   • There is one Dashboard Menu to play around images, content etc.
   • There is one Story Menu to create new stories related to the data or content collected from multiple data sources.
   • There is one Analysis Menu to analyze data available in the sheet that may include forecasting or calculating etc.
   • There is one Map Menu to build map views in Tableau. Here you could assign geographical roles to fields in your data.
   • There is one Format Menu to enhance the look and feel of the dashboard created earlier. The various features offered by Format Menu include colors, borders, text alignments etc.
   • There is one Server Menu to log in to the Tableau Server to publish or access the results used by others.
3. And the last option is how to create visualizations and choose the right visualization for your Dashboard and datasets available in Tableau.

Datamatics – A use case for Tableau

Datamatics is the largest world bank based on market capitalization, stock investments, and securities. It is giving services in all major areas of investment like mutual funds, IPO, equity, derivatives, etc. In a dynamic world, tracking the latest market trends is taken as the highest priority by clients. A solution is needed that can provide hassle-free, and accurate data visualizations.

The bank is unable to meet the latest market trends and regulatory requirements. It is further delaying the decision-making process too. Now Tableau was selected by the Datamatics to find the solution. As we know, Tableau is a leading data visualization tool in the market. Based on needs, different dashboards, graphs, or charts were created at different levels and daily needs were managed proficiently for different departments like never before. In this way, Tableau improves the decision-making process and the overall performance of a business.

Conclusion

With this discussion, we come to an end for the topic “Tableau Tutorial for beginners Guide”. I hope you enjoyed reading the blog and learned all the important concepts related to Tableau Software. With deep understanding, you can learn how to make proper insights, dashboards and many more. You also take certification on tableau to upgrade your skills and learn more about tableau.

Read: A Complete Guide on How to Become a Tableau Developer