Tableau Desktop Level 2: Beyond the Basics

Tableau is our most popular series classes. A green flag beside a date on the right means that a session has met the minimum enrollment levels and is running. However, it is common for dates for this course to fill weeks in advance. Even if a date has a green flag, you might not be able to get into that session if it is full. To avoid disappointment, it is best to register for this class at least three weeks in advance.

Overview

Tableau has emerged as one of the most popular Business Intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. This course will empower you to become a master in Tableau by exploiting the many of its new features.

You will embark on this exciting journey by getting to know the valuable methods of utilizing advanced calculations to solve complex problems. These techniques include creative use of different types of calculations such as row-level, aggregate-level, and more. You will discover how almost any data visualization challenge can be met in Tableau Desktop by getting a proper understanding of the tool’s inner workings and creatively exploring possibilities.

You’ll be armed with an arsenal of advanced chart types and techniques to enable you to efficiently and engagingly present information to a variety of audiences through the use of clear, efficient and engaging dashboards. Explanations and examples of efficient and inefficient visualization techniques, well-designed and poorly-designed dashboards, and compromise design options for when Tableau consumers will not embrace the data visualization will build your understanding of best design practices using Tableau Desktop and how to use it efficiently.

By the end of the course, you will be equipped with all the information you need to create effective data visualizations and dashboards. In addition, you will learn a great deal about data, data cleansing and data types when using Tableau Desktop.

Audience

This two-day course will provide you with the skills that will help you be a Tableau Advanced designer. It is designed for individuals with at least 6 months experience with the fundamental concepts of Tableau and/or those students who have taken the Tableau Desktop Level 1: Introduction class and who wish to take their skills to the next level.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, it is highly recommended that students have taken the following course:

• Tableau Desktop Level 1: Introduction

In addition, it is recommended to have at least 6 months experience using Tableau Desktop.

Students should have experience using Microsoft Excel and the use of Pivot Tables and calculations would be helpful.

Certification Options

This class, when combined with our Tableau Desktop Level 1: Introduction class, offer a strong foundation in preparation for the Tableau Desktop Certified Associate Exam. Exam prep guide is shown here: https://mkt.tableau.com/files/DesktopCA_ExamGuide.pdf

Course Outline

1. Getting Up to Speed - A Review of The Basics

• Creating Worksheets and Dashboards
• Connecting Tableau to Your Data
• Measure Names and Measure Values
• Three Essential Tableau Concepts
• Exporting Data to Other Devices

2. All About Data - Getting Your Data Ready

• Understanding Hyper
• Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Process Models
• CRISP-DM
• Focus On Data Preparation

3. Tableau Prep

• Connecting To Data
• The Tableau Prep GUI
• Prepping Data
• Additional Options with Tableau Prep Builder
• Exporting Data

4. Joins, Blends, And Data Structures

• Relationships
• Joins
• Unions
• Blends
• Understanding Data Structures

5. Table Calculations

• A Definition and Two Questions
• Introducing Functions
• Directional And Non-Directional Table Calculations
• Application Of Functions

6. All About Data - Data Densification, Cubes, And Big Data

• Using The OData Connector
• Introduction To Data Densification
• Working With Cubes
• Tableau And Big Data

7. Level of Detail Calculations

• Introducing Lod Calculations
• Playground I: Fixed and Exclude
• Playground II: Include
• Building Practical Applications with LODs

8. Beyond the Basic Chart Types

• Improving Popular Visualizations
• Custom Background Images
• Tableau Extensions

9. Mapping

• Extending Tableau’s Mapping Capabilities Without Leaving Tableau
• Creating Custom Polygons
• Heatmaps
• Dual Axes and Layering Maps
• Extending Tableau’s Mapping Capabilities with Other Technology
• Swapping Maps

10. Tableau for Presentations

• Getting The Best Images Out of Tableau
• From Tableau to PowerPoint
• Embedding Tableau in PowerPoint
• Animating Tableau
• Story Points and Dashboards for Presentations
• Presentation Resources

11. Visualization Best Practices and Dashboard Design

• Visualization Design Theory
• Formatting Rules
• Color Rules
• Visualization Type Rules
• Compromises
• Keeping Visualizations Simple
• Dashboard Design
• Dashboard Best Practices for User Experience

12. Advanced Analytics

• Visualizing World Indices Correlations
• Geo-Spatial Analytics with Chicago Traffic Violations
• Extending Geo-Spatial Analytics with Distance Measures

13. Improving Performance

• Understanding The Performance-Recording Dashboard
• Hardware And On-The-Fly Techniques
• Connecting To Data Sources
• Working With Extracts
• Using Filters Wisely
• Efficient Calculations
• Other Ways to Improve Performance

14. Interacting with Tableau Server/Online

• Publishing A Data Source to Tableau Server
• Web-Authoring
• Maintaining Workbooks on Tableau Server
• More Tableau Server Settings and Features

15. Programming Tool Integration

• Integrating Programming Languages
• R Installation & Integration
• Implementing R Functionality
• Python Installation & Integration
• Implementing Python Functionality