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Just because you have geographical data, it doesn't mean you should make a map. Just because you have a date, it doesn't mean a trend line is the best thing. And just because you want to see the relationship of a part to a whole, it doesn't mean you should use a pie chart.

Now that you’ve picked the metrics to include in your mobile dashboard, it’s time to decide whether to go vertical or horizontal. It’s important to make this decision before you start building your dashboard or transforming an existing one. Why? The answer is simple: screen size. Because the phone screen is very small, the orientation you choose will impact many steps, from your analysis to the layout of your views. Below are some tips to get you started.

Big data is an interesting and quickly-evolving space. Customers appear to be mixing and matching multiple solutions based on their analytics needs instead of settling for a one-size-fits-all. I want to point out two of the trends that at first appear to be at odds. But in reality, they both point to this new, modern analytics stack that companies are adopting.

Back in October, I shared the Tableau challenge workbook with fellow data explorers at the Tableau Conference, and many people asked me, “How can I make something similar?” So I thought I’d walk you through the steps. There are three major components to building a Tableau application: data, framework, and formatting.

We’re thrilled to share Montclare has named Tableau as one of the top 20 SaaS companies in the world!

Last week, we released a web data connector (WDC) to the Star Wars API. Judging from your Twitter conversations, we can tell there’s a lot of Star Wars excitement in the Tableau community! Today, we’d like to congratulate the fans (ourselves included) for enduring the long wait for Episode VII. We’re excited to share ten awesome visualizations about Star Wars, including many that you created with the WDC in just the past week.

Do you know an exceptional Tableau user who helps others via social media? Nominate the person to be a Tableau Ambassador! Earlier this year, we launched our Tableau Ambassador program, which recognizes community members who go above and beyond the call of duty to help other Tableau users. The program began with a single branch, the Tableau Ambassadors for the Community Forums. We soon added two more branches: the Tableau Ambassadors for User Groups and the Tableau Ambassadors for Social Media. The Ambassador program now encompasses three different—but deeply-connected—areas of the Tableau community: the community forums, the user groups, and social media.

With mobile devices now ubiquitous, more and more companies are looking to leverage the power of mobile analytics. Whether you’re at an offsite meeting, on a plane, or even in your pajamas at home, being just a few taps and swipes away from your data has tremendous value. But due to their small screen size and touch interface, phones pose a unique challenge as an analytics distribution platform. That’s why it’s critical to pinpoint your analytical focus when designing your smartphone dashboard. You’ll want to include only the metrics that truly matter to your audience.

We're excited to announce a direct connector to Google Cloud SQL. This optimized connection will allow anyone using Tableau to take advantage of this fast and affordable MySQL database.

Here at Tableau, we might be getting a little too excited about next week’s Star Wars release. But who can blame us? Star Wars basically has the perfect combination of brainy geekiness and excellent storytelling that we love here at Tableau.