Silver Questions

Question 1

If I copy the image to PPT, does it update automatically?

Answer 1

No. Tableau Server provides a great way to deliver interactive – On-Demand analysis to the masses.
If you want to embed the interactive Server views in PPT, you can do this via a free 3rd party app called LiveWeb.

Question 2

Can I change the lines to have patterns? My boss is color blind.

Answer 2

No. The best practice is to label the lines by putting the same field on both the color and label shelves and changing the color palette to gray or ideally our “color blind” color palette.

Question 3

How do I share these results with others? (What are all my sharing options?)

Answer 3

This question is best followed with another question asking more about their specific scenario and requirements.
Save the file and share it with other Tableau users
Right click on a view and copy the image or cross-tab and paste
File  Print, Export the image, cross-tab or PDF and distribute.
Share it with Tableau Reader so users can interact
Publish it to the Tableau Server so people can run it on demand
Use the ‘Share’ button in Server to generate a URL or HTML to paste in e-mail, CMS’s such as SharePoint, or Blogs

Question 4

Is Tableau a BI platform or an Analytics tool?

Answer 4

Yes. Tableau can be both, choose wisely how you position this with customers. Tableau provides rich functionality for ad hoc reporting, analytics, dashboarding and visualization. All the content created in Tableau can be easily shared via interactive graphical displays in a web browser.
Due to the fast, easy nature of Tableau, companies can achieve quick ROIs with anything from a small deployment to an enterprise roll-out

Question 5

Is Tableau 64 bit?

Answer 5

Yes, the Tableau data engine is 64 bit (or 32 bit if you only have a 32 bit machine). Tableau’s User Interface and the VizQL engine are 32 bit – but they only contain the result set caches, not the raw data so they uses a relatively small amount of RAM.

Question 6

Does Tableau do 3D Charts?

Answer 6

3D charts provide very eye catching visuals however, they typically hinder or skew the analysis being presented. For example, when dealing with volume or surface area such as a pie chart, a 3D chart can make certain slices seem bigger than they actually are. Because of these problems and they face that they don’t improve the story of the data, pundits do not consider 3D charts to be a best practice visual.

Question 7

Can I integrate Tableau with other applications?

Answer 7

Yes, Tableau provides both the ability to embed tableau visuals inside applications as well as to call other applications through URLs

Question 8

Who defines the measures and dimensions?

Answer 8

For relational – Tableau determines this automatically. By default, all numeric fields (that are not keys in the database) are measures, everything else is a dimension. The names of the fields are simply the names of the columns in the database. To change their placement, just drag and drop.
For Cubes – These are explicitly defined by the author of the cube.

Question 9

Can I convert a measure to a dimension? Can I convert a dimension to a measure?

Answer 9

Yes. Drag a measure to the dimension pane.
For Dimensions, either drag it to the measures pane if you are trying to count the dimension, or change its data type to number if it is the wrong type (right click and choose Data Type) and drag to the measures pane.

Question 10

What is a cube? Does Tableau support Cubes?

Answer 10

It’s a ‘multi-dimensional’ way to store data. The main benefit over relational databases used to be performance – typically a value is already calculated and stored for every combination of dimensions. Another benefit is increased structure such as hierarchies and predefined relationships.
Tableau can connect to cubes generated by Microsoft Analysis Services or Oracle Essbase (Hyperion)

Question 11

What’s the difference between using the generic ODBC connection to connect to my data and the connections listed in the ‘connect to data’ dialog window? Are there drawbacks / benefits that I should be aware of?

Answer 11

The connections listed in the ‘connect to data’ dialog window are optimized and tuned by Tableau to assure performance and full functionality of the Tableau feature set.
ODBC connections will rely on the driver (likely provided by your database vendor) and may have limited support for the SQL standard. The result is that performance and functionality in Tableau may be degraded.

Question 12

How do I join together sheets from two excel workbooks?

Answer 12

This is a trick question – but common. Tableau can only join sheets that are in a single workbook. You can use the ‘Edit Move or Copy Sheet’ command in Excel to get all the sheets into a single workbook.
Data Blending will also work, but in many cases this will provide limited capabilities. If possible, joins are preferred.

Question 13

Is Data Blending within a single database the same as using Multiple Tables in the connection dialog?

Answer 13

No, joins (in the multiple tables’ scenario) happen in the database with the raw data as part of one universal query. Blends happen in Tableau with the already summarized (aggregated) data. This means that Data Blending sends a separate query to each database. These queries aggregate the data to the same level of detail – regardless of the level of detail of the raw data. Then the results of the separate queries are blended together by Tableau.

Question 14

Does Tableau always import the data?

Answer 14

No, this is actually a big differentiator between us and some of our competitors.
You have the option to use Tableau’s fast data engine or maintain a live connection to your database, all without any scripting. If your data is already fast, or changes very often, then a direct connection is probably best.

Question 15

Is any functionality in Tableau dependent on having my data in the data engine?

Answer 15

No. Blending, calculations, table calculations, parameters, actions and all analytics are the same. However, some data sources will get extra capabilities when imported into the data engine (e.g. excel files will be upgraded to have count distinct and median)

Question 16

What is a packaged workbook?

Answer 16

Packaged workbooks collect all the files related to the workbook and compress them into a single file. This package can then be delivered to other Tableau users without having to separately include data, images and other files referenced by the workbook.

Question 17

Does packaging automatically save all the data?

Answer 17

No. If your data is on a server, Tableau will not automatically extract the data. The reason is that the database could be zillions of records which is impractical to pull down to the local machine (time and size come to mind). If you want to include data from the server (for example to share with Tableau Reader) you must first extract each data connection separately.

Question 18

How do I schedule an extract to be refreshed?

Answer 18

Extracts can only be scheduled when using the Tableau Server. During the publish process, choose ‘Schedules & Passwords…’ on the publish dialog. Choose a schedule and then ‘Publish’. If the button is not available, then you are either not currently using an extract (so go create one) or the administrator of the Tableau Server has not enabled this functionality.
Schedules are created and managed on the server by a system administrator.

Question 19

Name at least 8 ways that Tableau makes dates shiny. Be able to demo all of these.

Answer 19

(relative date filtering, hierarchy, reorder hierarchy, choose any level of the hierarchy, different parts on different shelves, continuous dates, discrete and continuous, fiscal year, continuous dates vs. discrete dates and their respective hierarchies…)

Question 20

How do I make a monthly trend line span 2 years?

Answer 20

Use the new Continuous Date Hierarchy

Question 21

How do I display ranks or line numbers?

Answer 21

Create a calculated field: index(). Convert it to ‘discrete’ and add it to your sheet. Right click on the field pill to change its indexing behavior (calculate using….)

Question 22

When should I use ‘Add to Context’?

Answer 22

The basic recommendation is to use a context filter when a) the filter doesn’t change often; and b) when the data will be reduced to less than 1/10th the number of records. A context filter creates a temp table that contains just the records that match the filter. All subsequent interactions are run against the small subset of data which greatly improves performance.
Note: The ‘context’ is created as a temporary table on the database. It is rare, but some users might not have permission to create temp tables. In that case Tableau will extract the data that matches the filter.

Question 23

Are my calculations written back to the database?

Answer 23

No. Tableau is a very safe environment – it never changes your data. The calculations are computed on the fly based on the current values in the database

Question 24

Are calculations performed locally in Tableau?

Answer 24

Tableau pushes most calculations back to the database. All aggregations are performed on the database (which includes the data engine). Table Calculations, most reference lines, and some types of filters are performed locally.

Question 25

I want the top ‘n’ products for each region. How do I do this?

Answer 25

Add a quick filter for region and set it to ‘Single Value List’. Then add the Region filter to the context and add a top ‘n’ filter for products. The reason you need the context is that the top n filter is applied before any other filters are applied. Setting the context means that the top filter is applied after the data has been limited to the single product.
Note: ‘Top’ filters are dynamic – they are computed when the query is run. This means that if the data changes, the top n list might also change.
For more complex scenarios, you can create a calculated field: index() and then filter this to the top 10.

Question 26

I want to filter out all unprofitable records?

Answer 26

Regardless of the view you have, drag Profit from the measure pane to the filter shelf. When prompted, choose the disaggregated field “# All values” (i.e. there is no aggregation). Drag the slider to 0 or type in 0. Do not use the ‘Show Quick Filter’ option on the field, this will use its default aggregation. The whole point of this question is that Tableau can filter either the raw data or the aggregate data – very powerful.

Question 27

Does Tableau do small multiples? What are small multiples?

Answer 27

Yes. These are very powerful visuals for comparison. This is what enables true multi-dimensional analysis. It is basically a cross-tab of charts or visuals. Small multiples are a big improvement over the common 3d bar chart. They allow us to see multiple dimensions simultaneously, without obscuring, skewing or hiding any of the data. Tableau’s direct interaction model makes this even better so users can reorganize the output effortlessly or drill down all the way to the raw data.
Excel 2010 – default 3d chart. Try to compare heights.

Question 28

How do I change my numbers to format in percent?

Answer 28

Best Practice: Right click on a field in the Data Window and choose ‘Field PropertiesNumber Format’. Set the option to ‘Percentage’.
On a sheet, Right click on a tablet or number and choose ‘Format’. Typically you would choose the ‘Pane’ tab in the Format window and change the default number type (near the top) to percentage. Notice that the formatting changes instantly as you make selections.

Question 29

Can I format according to my corporate standard?

Answer 29

Yes. Once you have the formatting as you see fit, you can copy and paste the formatting between sheets – even into new workbooks. Right click on the sheet tab to ‘Copy Formatting’, then multi select the sheets and right click to ‘Paste Formatting’

Question 30

What are my formatting options?

Answer 30

The formatting options are quite vast and can be explored by using the format menu. It includes field level formatting, row and column formatting, sheet formatting. You can change fonts, borders, shading, colors, totals and much more.

Question 31

Can I drill down?

Answer 31

Yes, but start with a question like “How do you mean?” Drilling down/into data means different things to different people. Determine what they’re looking for BEFORE you discuss these:

Right click on anything to view the raw data. Or you can drill anywhere you want by adding more fields to your analysis. Furthermore, if you want to enable other users to drill to a specific view or set of details, you can use an action to link sheets. What is even more powerful is the user can filter a secondary sheet by hovering, selecting or right clicking on an element in the primary sheet. This gives the user a rich experience with their guided analysis.

This approach is far superior to traditional drill down. The sheet that you drill to can be structured to properly display the new level of detail. For example, the user might drill from map to a trend line to see the history. This would be hard or impossible to properly display by just adding time to the existing view.

If all you need are hierarchies, then yes. Simply create the hierarchy by dropping the fields on top of each other on the data window. You can select the plus signs it the two locations indicated to drill down to the next level of the hierarchy.

Question 32

Can I put a field in more than one hierarchy?

Answer 32

Yes. Right click on the field and ‘duplicate’. Then add it to another hierarchy.

Question 33

Can I apply a filter to all my sheets? To my entire dashboard?

Answer 33

Yes. Right click on the filter and choose ‘Make Global’. On a quick filter, use the pull-down to ‘Make Global’. This applies the filter to any worksheet that uses the same data source.
Additionally, by setting up ‘Actions’ a sheet can be used to filter other sheets on the dashboard. This provides 2 benefits: the filter can be scoped to work on just the dashboard and it can work across multiple data sources.

Question 34

I don’t want to summarize my data – I want to see all of it. Is this possible?

Answer 34

Yes. (uncheck AnalysisAggregate Data) This is very important as there are few tools that can do both aggregation and plot the raw data.
Furthermore, reference lines can be used to show other summaries of the data while still displaying all details.

Question 35

How do I get the count of customers per Region?

Answer 35

Getting a count is as simple as right clicking on the dimension and choosing the aggregation. However, the ‘Count’ aggregation counts the number of times there is any entry in the customer field. Hence, if the same customer has purchased twice, they will be counted twice. In this example, the prospect most likely wants the number of unique customers or the ‘Count (Distinct)’. In real databases this is simply an aggregation option. In file based data (Excel, Access, text files) you will first need to create an extract to enable the distinct count.

Question 36

In a web browser, looking at a viz, can I change the measurement that is displayed, e.g. change from “sales” to “profit” in the web browser?

Answer 36

Yes. Using “interactive” parameters, you can allow the web user to select their desired parameter. The calc looks like this:
case [SelectYourMeasure]
when "Sales" then SUM([Sales])
when "Profit" then SUM([Profit])
end

Or an IF statement, or, any number of different approaches.

Question 37

There are three ways of creating Sets in Tableau. Demonstrate them and describe the differences between each.

Answer 37

1. Right click on two or more dimensions in the schema viewer and choose “Create Set…”. This will create a set containing the complete cross product of the selected dimensions. The resulting set cannot be edited.
2. Right click on a single dimension in the schema viewer and choose “Create Set…”. This brings up a dialogue that allows you to select members, apply filters to the list of members (e.g. only salesmen with sales of over $1m) and restrict the list to the top members filtered by a field or an expression.
3. Select some marks in a view, right click and choose “Create Set…”. This will create a set containing the complete set of dimension tuples in the selected marks. The resulting set cannot be edited.

Question 38

I want to find the click through rate. It is clicks divided by impressions. How do I do this?

Answer 38

Calculations requiring division should include the aggregation. For example:
Sum([Clicks])/Sum([Impressions])
This gives the proper weighted average no matter how the data is filtered, sliced or diced.

For example, in the table below, the first calculation is written as:
[Clicks]/[Impressions]
It gives the proper answer for every row of data, but needs an aggregation for the totals – in this case I used average.
The second calculation is Sum([Clicks])/Sum([Impressions]) and already has the aggregation defined. We can see the importance of performing the division on the totals (results) rather than on each row. The inaccurate calculation gave a total click thru rate of over 5% where the real click thru rate is only 1/10th of a percent.

Question 39

Does Tableau do What-if Analysis?

Answer 39

Yes. A Parameter can be created to provide the user input. For example: What if sales increased by 20% or some other value.

Question 40

I want to find the average of my monthly sales.

Answer 40

This sounds like a simple question, but read it carefully. The user wants to sum the sales for each month and then find the average of those sales. Tableau can do this with either a summarized extract or reference lines.

Question 41

Can I filter the results of a Table Calculation?

Answer 41

Yes. Simply double click on the field or right click and choose filter. This filtering happens in Tableau and not at the database which enables more complex filtering scenarios.

Question 42

All my counties are in the wrong place. Can I fix this?

Answer 42

Yes! Many states have counties of the same name – for example 31 states have a Washington county. First solution is to add the state field to the Level of Detail shelf. Now Tableau knows where to put each county. Additionally, if you are working in a single state, you can tell Tableau your default location by choosing “MapEdit Locations…”

Question 43

Can I use my own maps?

Answer 43

Yes, you can either direct Tableau to a WMS (Web Map Service) of your choosing, or add a background image of your choosing.

Question 44

Can I use my own geographic fields (Addresses, airports)?

Answer 44

Yes. If your data already has lat and lon just use that. If you have the lat/lon for your specific data in a separate location, you can use connect to it and use data blending or import the custom geo-coding.

Question 45

I don’t have lat/long for my (addresses, cities, postal codes). How do I add them to Tableau?

Answer 45

You will need to first geo-code your data. Geocoding is the process of associating geographic coordinate (latitude and longitude values) to geographic information such as state names or zip codes. Many websites offer this information free of charge, or in some cases for a fee.

Question 46

Why do my global filters not work for these sheets but actions do? (aka How do I make global filters apply to all sheets?)

Answer 46

Global Filters are only global to the data source – not the workbook. So all sheets must use the same primary datasource for the Global Filter to be applied. Filter actions can be used to apply filters across various sheets. Filter actions can be set using a sheet as a filter and by adding a dimension by itself on a sheet you can set up a filter action that will look comparable to a multi-select quick filter.

Question 47

How do I make Global Filters apply to just one dashboard?

Answer 47

Global Filters are designed to work across all sheets using the same data source. In order to have different filters on different dashboards, you need multiple data sources. Simply:
duplicate the data source (DataData ConnectionDuplicate)
re-create your specific sheets using the new data source
set up a new global filter

Question 48

How do I change the order of tabs, names of tabs in Tableau Server? How can I hide some of my tabs in Server?

Answer 48

Simple change the order, names or visibility of the sheets in Tableau Desktop and then republish the workbook.

Question 49

How fast is Tableau Server?

Answer 49

Tableau Server is a high performance system that is architected to deliver highly interactive views to the user. You can distribute Tableau Server across many computers letting the users benefit from the multi-threading, parallel processing and state of the art data caching.

Question 50

How scalable is Tableau Server? (How many users can it handle)

Answer 50

It is highly scalable. Tableau Public is running on a Tableau Server. It serves tens of thousands of unique users a day.

When talking about Tableau Server, get a sense for how many clients they are expecting. If the number is small, do not even bring up the Core pricing model as it will confuse things. Once you have qualified that the customer is looking at a sizeable Tableau Server implementation (e.g. hundreds of users or more), then discuss the two pricing models; Named User and Core. Keep in mind there are advantages and disadvantages to each.

A simple way to explain the two licensing options to a customer is:
With Named User you have a fixed number of users, but can add unlimited hardware to serve those users.
With Core Licensing you have a fixed amount of hardware, but you can add unlimited Users.

Or the same thing except in parallel:
With Named User you have a fixed number of users, but can add unlimited hardware to serve those users.
With Core Licensing you have an unlimited number of users, but can add a fixed amount of hardware to server those users.

Tableau Server has effectively scaled to several hundred concurrent users.  With typical usage ratios or 1 concurrent user for every 10 licenses users, this means that Tableau Server can potentially support implementations of 1000’s of users.  Don’t promise this to customers as the actual performance varies greatly with the following factors:
Performance of server machine
Other applications on the server
Database performance
Complexity of views and dashboards
Actual user interaction
Network speeds

Question 51

Can I use Tableau Server to deliver a report to the public?

Answer 51

Yes. For ‘anonymous’ access this requires ‘core’ based licensing with the ‘guest user’ enabled. If they still want to secure the views (hence no longer ‘the public’) then they can choose named user or core based licensing. Tableau also supports SSL connections.

Understand that if the customer focuses on delivering public content then it’s likely that Digital may be a better fit. Qualifying questions by sales/presales are crucial.

Question 52

What are the requirements for Tableau Server? What else do I need to install? Does it run on Linux?

Answer 52

Tableau Server runs on Windows Server 2003, 2008 or 2008 R2. It is a complete package that has no pre-requisites or additional components outside of drivers for your databases (often these are included with the OS).

Question 53

What are the requirements for the web client?

Answer 53

Tableau has no installs and no required components (no flash, no active X, no Java). It is purely HTML and JavaScript that runs in IE (Internet Explorer), Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

Question 54

Does it use Active Directory (Windows Authentication)?

Answer 54

Yes. Tableau server can use either Active Directory or remain independent.

Question 55

Can I embed it in my portal?

Answer 55

Yes. It is very simple to do. Just use the ‘Share’ button on any view and paste the contents into your portal or CMS system. You can also integrate it with SharePoint, either as a web page player or a web part.

Question 56

Can I save my changes to a view (my filters, drill downs, sorts etc)?

Answer 56

Yes. Simply click the save button and the next time you visit that view your changes will automatically be applied. Additionally, you can share your specific view of the data with others.

Question 57

Why should I buy Server when Reader is free?

Answer 57

Tableau Server provides live connections to the database where Reader is static
Security and permissioning. Note that reader provides no security. If they have access to the .twbx, they have access to all the data in the .twbx.
User filters – each user can see their personal view of the data
Nothing to install or maintain on user’s machines
Collaboration for authors and consumers of analysis
Everyone is seeing the same version of the views and the data.
Tableau Server can automatically refresh extracts while in Reader they must be manually updated and redistributed.
Packages workbooks have the potential to be large. This can be a lot of data to distribute.

Question 58

What is the difference between a system admin and a content admin?

Answer 58

Content admins can perform all administrative tasks except what is located in the maintenance tab, which can only be accessed by a system admin. This allows customers to give content administrator rights to users that will maintain users, groups, projects, workbooks, views, permissions etc, without giving full system admin rights that can impact configuration, options and installation defaults. A content admin cannot add users in a deployment that uses multi-tenancy.

Question 59

Can I customize Tableau Server?

Answer 59

What are you looking to do? Often embedding the views is the right solution.
You can add your own logo and name and do several other types of configuration.

Question 60

Can I publish a view so that each person only sees their data?

Answer 60

Yes. See also: “user filtering”. This provides robust row level security and can be used to provide cell level security.

Question 61

What is the benefit of publishing a data source to Data Server?

Answer 61

Metadata management = One Version of the Truth
Add, delete, or rename fields - without writing back to the database!
Add complex Calculations once
Hide unnecessary fields
Set up useful data models – once
Central permissions management for sensitive data sources
Only need to install database drivers (for relational/OLAP connections) one time on one machine
Prevent “Data creep” if you have more than one analyst publishing workbooks based on the same data.

Question 62

Can I schedule the export/cache/pdf etc?

Answer 62

Yes. Extracts can be scheduled using the Tableau Server interface. Additionally, using a command line utility Tabcmd you can generate a PDF, or image of a report, administer users, and automate other Tableau Server maintenance tasks.

Question 63

Can I connect directly to the Tableau Server repository? Can I build my own ‘admin’ views?

Answer 63

Yes. If an administrator enables remote access to the repository, then you can connect Tableau Professional to the postgreSQL database and build your own analysis and reports.