Best of the Tableau Web: June 2021

Hello, and welcome to Best of the Tableau Web! I’m publishing a little earlier this month to share some great Iron Viz posts ahead of the July 2 deadline for entries.

If you’re still thinking about entering, I wholeheartedly recommend you do. It’s a chance for glory, for sure, but even though only three people make the finals, everyone will be a winner in some way. By entering, you’re developing your data literacy and data storytelling skills. You’re increasing your involvement in the community, whether you're just dipping your toes in for the first time or a longtime member of the #DataFam. You’re building a bigger Tableau portfolio, too, which is great for a career in data analytics. 

Win or learn, you can’t lose. 

The Tableau Community is a great resource for Iron Viz inspiration. In blogs this month, past winners shared their ideas, including Joshua Smith (2019 co-champion) and Sarah Bartlett (2018 finalist). I’ve been judging and hosting Iron Viz for over eight years and I’ve written a post, too, sharing my seven best ideas and resources. You must also read Priyank Dobahl’s post. She brilliantly describes her tentative first steps in the competition, and the growth that followed during the following years. 

Beyond the Iron Viz-specific blogs, there are—as always—lots of great tips and tricks to learn from.

I particularly enjoyed Donna Coles’ post on RegEx (Regular Expressions) this month. She humbly and honestly shared her challenges with RegEx. I share those emotions: RegEx feels like magic when it works, but the head scratching to get to a solution can sometimes be painful. (Note: The Flerlage Twins recently published a super guide to RegEx that’s worth your time.) 

Maggy Muellner’s post about filters suggests ways you can tweak those filters to make them shine a little more. The Data School blogs are always a good source of quick and useful tips, too—I liked Henry Mak’s Barcode chart post this month.

With that, enjoy Best of the Tableau Web with tips, tricks, inspiration and more produced by the Tableau community. For updates throughout the month, follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn, and check out the list of blogs Mark Bradbourne and I follow for Best of the Tableau Web. If you don’t see yours on the list, we invite you to add it here.

Iron Viz

• Joshua Smith, Tableau Public: Create a compelling Iron Viz Qualifier entry in ten steps
• Sarah Bartlett, Sarah Loves Data: Reasons to Enter Iron Viz 2021
• Priyanka Dobhal: IronViz Is Here! Don’t miss out
• Andy Cotgreave, Tableau Public: 7 resources to kickstart your Iron Viz entry

Tips and Tricks

• Heidi Kalbe, Queen Of Data: Five ways of labelling above your horizontal axis in Tableau
• Harry Osborne, The Data School: How to build a Control Chart in Tableau
• Donna Coles, Donna + DataViz: Sales Goal Selection Tool
• Henry Mak, The Data School: Tableau Simples #8: Barcode Chart
• Joselito Bondoc, The Data School: Using Custom Admin Views to Help with Tableau Server Housekeeping
• Maggy Muellner, Playfair Data: 3 Innovative Ways to Use Filters in Tableau
• Keith Dykstra, InterWorks: Pivoting Without Changing Granularity: A New Use for Tableau’s Relational Data Model
• Priyanka Dobhal: 10 things in Tableau that I wish I knew earlier

Calculations

• Eric Parker, OneNumber: How to Compare the Last Complete Week to the Previous Complete Week in Tableau
• Donna Coles, Donna + DataViz: Can you structure the unstructured?
• Beth Kairys, InterWorks: Date Comparisons in Tableau, Part 2: Visualization
• Heidi Kalbe, Queen Of Data: Filtering dimensions without losing RANK in Tableau

Prep

• Joselito Bondoc, The Data School: Grouping values in Tableau Prep Builder

Server

• Harry Osborne, The Data School: Tableau PostgreSQL Server Basics 

Formatting, Design, Storytelling

• Lindsay Betzendahl, Viz Zen Data: Return to Where You Came From: How to drill down to one report from two places and get back the source dashboard 

Inspiration

• Ken Flerlage, The Flerlage Twins: Datafam Colors: A Color Palette Crowdsourcing Project
• Adam Mico: 7 Ways To Enhance Your Tableau Public Portfolio
• Priyanka Dobhal: Why I don’t like Pie Charts or Donut Charts?
• Lindsay Betzendahl, Viz Zen Data: Prepping for the Tableau Desktop Certified Professional Exam
• Mark Bradbourne, Sons of Hierarchies: Real World Fake Data; A Retrospective
• Beth Kairys, InterWorks: Date Comparisons in Tableau, Part 1: Creation
• Alexander Waleczek, Curvediscussion: Organising Hybrid Events
• Steve Wexler, Data Revelations: Chart Chat Live—Round 22