By: Eric Parker
Eric Parker lives in Seattle and has been teaching Tableau and Alteryx since 2014. He's helped thousands of students solve their most pressing problems. If you have a question, feel free to reach out to him directly via email. You can follow him on LinkedIn or sign up for a Tableau Office Hour to work with him directly!
Tableau is a fantastic data visualization tool, but memorizing some of the initial data visualization rules is hard. It might only take a few clicks to create a scatter plot or a highlight table, but you need to know exactly *which* clicks to make in order to create those charts.
If you want a step-by-step guide on how to create some of the most commonly used chart types in Tableau, look no further! This video covers how to create text tables, highlight tables, bar charts, line graphs, area charts, scatter plots, pie charts, tree map, geographic maps and bubble charts in about one-minute each!
Want to see a walkthrough on a different chart type? Let us know in the comments!
Access/download the Tableau Workbook from the demo here.
Here are the key notes on each chart type.
Text Table
Ingredients:
•Dimension on Rows and/or Columns
•Measure on Text tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Double-click on secondary measures to have individual columns for each measure.
Highlight Table
Ingredients:
•Dimension on Rows and/or Columns
•Measure on Text tab in Marks Card
•Measure on Color tab in Marks Card
•Ensure Marks Card dropdown is set to "Square"
Gotchas:
•Squares don't display nicely when a Dimension is on the Color tab instead of a Measure.
Bar Chart
Ingredients:
•Dimension on Rows
•Measure on Columns
Line Chart
Ingredients:
•Date Part or Date Value on Columns
•Measure on Rows
Gotchas:
•Look out for the differences between Date Parts and Date Values!
Area Chart
Ingredients:
•Date Part or Date Value on Columns
•Measure on Rows
•Dimension on Color tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Ensure Marks Card dropdown is set to "Area"!
Scatter Plot
Ingredients:
•Measure on Columns Shelf
•Measure on Rows Shelf
•Dimension on Detail Tab in Marks Card
Pie Chart
Ingredients:
•Set Marks Card dropdown to "Pie"
•Dimension on Color Tab in Marks Card
•Measure on Size or Angle tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Add labels for clarity
•Don't create pies with too many slices!
Tree Map
Ingredients:
•Set Marks Card dropdown to "Square"
•Dimension on Detail and/or Color Tab in Marks Card
•Measure on Size tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Add labels for clarity
•Don't create tree maps with too many squares!
Geographic Map
Ingredients:
•Drop Geographic Dimension on Detail Tab in Marks Card
•If Latitidue and Longitude don't display automatically, double-click on those fields in Data Pane to add to Rows and Columns Shelves
•Add Measure to Color and/or Size Tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Tableau only maps some geographic fields to latitude and longitude by default. Select globe icon and "Geographic Role" next to a geographic field in the Data Pane to learn which fields Tableau can map.
•If your field isn't listed, you can still map it by bringing in your own Latitude and Longitude or loading a geographic file in Tableau.
Bubble Chart
Ingredients:
•Set Marks Card dropdown to "Circle"
•Dimension on Detail and/or Color Tab in Marks Card
•Measure on Size tab in Marks Card
Gotchas:
•Add labels for clarity
•Don't create bubble charts with too many circles!
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