This is the welcome screen you will see when you open Tableau after installation.
To connect to a data source, choose the type of file from the left pane
Select the file and click Open
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Now you will see that the excel file has 3 sheets and are displayed in the left pane
We will use Orders Sheet so drag it to the blank area. After that click on Go To Worksheet
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Now below you will see the control centre of Tableau.
This is Menu Bar, where following can be controlled:
• File – Create, open, save, export, or publish workbooks
• Data – Manage data sources, refresh data, edit relationships
• Worksheet / Dashboard / Story – Switch between different views
• Analysis – Add totals, trend lines, reference lines, forecasts
• Map / Format / Server – Mapping options, formatting, publishing
This is Toolbar (Icons below the Menu Bar)
Key icons you’ll commonly use:
• Undo / Redo
• Swap Rows & Columns
• Sort (Ascending / Descending)
• Show / Hide Labels
• Fit View (Standard, Entire View, Width, Height)
Data Pane (Left Panel) where Dimensions (Blue icons) These are categorical fields and
Measures (Green icons) which are numerical fields.
Marks Card (Very Important)
This decides how your data looks.
Options include:
• Colour – Change colour by category or value
• Size – Increase or decrease mark size
• Label (Text) – Show values on charts
• Detail – Add granularity
• Tooltip – Information shown on hover
This is where design meets data.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Show Me (Top-Right)
This suggests chart types automatically.
• Bar chart
• Line chart
• Pie chart
• Map
• Heat map
Sheet Tabs (Bottom)
You can manage:
• Sheet 1 – Individual chart
• Dashboard – Combine multiple sheets
• Story – Create a narrative flow
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Lets Create First Visual drag sales to column and region to rows. To get a better visual use
sorting functions
After this if you want you can use transpose to change the horizontal lines of chart to vertical.
To add details use marks card. Here you can drag region to colors and, Sales to label to show
the labels in visual.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Try create category wise sales chart with labels and colors here.
Try create a filled map like below
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Lets Create Filter
1. Static Filter
Meaning
A static filter is fixed in nature.
Once applied, it does not change automatically unless the user manually edits it.
Key Characteristics
• Predefined values
• No automatic update with new data
• Usually hidden from the end user
• Used mainly during data preparation or analysis
Example (Tableau)
• Filtering Region = South
• Filtering Order Date between 2020–2022
• Filtering Top 10 Customers (fixed)
Drag sales to rows and region to column. Add colors to region by dragging colors to region.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
To add static filter drag region to filter pane and uncheck south and click on apply.
The moment you click on apply. You will notice that south(Red Bar) disappeared from the chart.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
2. Dynamic Filter
Meaning
A dynamic filter updates automatically based on data changes, calculations, or user
interaction.
Key Characteristics
• Automatically refreshes with new data
• Responds to parameters, calculations, or context
• Often interactive and user-controlled
• Common in dashboards
Example (Tableau)
• Last 30 days sales
• Top N products (where N is controlled by a parameter)
• Filters driven by dashboard actions
To create a dynamic filter, drag customer names of column and sales to rows. Add sales to
label to see the sales of each customer.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Drag customer name to filter
In filter go to condition change from none to by field, select “>” instead of “=” and add value,
10000, that means we are filtering customer who had sales above 10000. Click apply and see
the change.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Now lets create a set of top 5 customer, so that we can highlight them in a new chart.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
To create a set click on the arrow near customer name in left panel in create choose set. Now
In Top click on by field and just ahead of Top write 5 and click okay.
Now drag drop the new set to colours
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Now you can see the grey are the top 5 customer in superstore.
Lets change colour of blue to green.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Select In and change the color to green and you can change the color of grey as well. Click apply
and see the magic.
Lets now understand Group.
Why Do We Use Groups?
• To merge similar items
• To reduce the number of categories
• To create custom classifications without changing the original data
• To make charts easier to understand
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Suppose you have Sub-Category:
• Chairs
• Tables
• Bookcases
• Phones
• Accessories
You can create:
• Furniture → Chairs, Tables, Bookcases
• Technology → Phones, Accessories
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
In the dialog box choose Table, Chair and Bookcases and rename it to furniture and click on
group and then apply.
Afterwards do the same for technology, select phones and accessories. In the below image you
can see now furniture and technology appear in the list than the previous list.
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization
Prepared by Dr Anadi Trikha for Course DBMA117 Data Visualization