Best of the Tableau Web: Starting a blog

Welcome to the Best of the Tableau Web for July 2019. The single most important thing to do when starting a blog: write about what makes you excited. Don’t write to try and be someone you’re not. In this diverse data community, there is a place for you and your interests. As always, enjoy this month’s posts with an excellent mix of great visualization tips, data preparation tips, and articles about changing the culture in your organization.

Welcome to the Best of the Tableau Web for July 2019. As always, I’ve enjoyed the excellent mix of great visualization tips (such as Klaus Schulte’s ideas about encoding change over time), data preparation tips (such as Eric Parker’s post on removing duplicate records in Tableau Prep), and articles about changing the culture in your organization (Kris Curtis on Just Eat).

Klaus, Eric, Kris, and many others, have been blogging for some time. A lot of people looking to start a blog ask me how to get started because they’re unsure of what to write about. My advice is to follow your passion. If you care about the topic, your passion will be present in the writing—and people will respond to that. The Tableau platform is wide and deep enough to support blogs about any topics. You’re a coder? Write about extensions and Python integration. Are you a designer or are passionate about design? Tell us about parallels from other areas of design. Is data science your jam? Can you bring algorithms into Tableau? The list goes on.

I also hear concerns from new bloggers about the level of detail you want to go into when writing. That is your choice too. There is plenty of space and interest to share simple tips, describe advanced coding techniques, or write philosophical pieces. The single most important thing to do: write about what makes you excited. Don’t write to try and be someone you’re not. In this diverse data community, there is a place for you and your interests. As always, enjoy this month’s posts. Follow me on Twitter @acotgreave to keep up with posts as I read them!

Inspiration

Toan Hoang Tableau Magic / A Year of Magic
Josh Smith Data Visualization Feedback: Evaluating Choices, Not Checklists
Dorian Banutoiu Evolution and Variation with “line & slope” charts in Tableau
Ivett Kovács Retro Games
Anya A'Hearn Feeding the screen-time beast with shifting mobile metrics
Toan Hoang Hex Maps in Tableau
David Murphy Podcast Guest Criteria & Insights
Kris Curtis Launching a self-service analytics programme (part 1)
Swexler Benevolent Manipulation in Data Visualization
Laine Caruzca What is business analytics and why is it important?
Jeff Plattner #MakeoverMonday Week 2019-31 Diary
Ken Flerlage Experiments with Ternary Plots in Tableau
Kevin Flerlage The Tableau Chart Catalog
Swexler The Churn Dashboard Explained
Emma Whyte Becoming data-driven: three data governance strategies
Emma Whyte Becoming data-driven: Simplyhealth’s governance journey
Klaus Schulte Encoding Change in Tableau Line Charts
Ella Worsdale Dude, where’s my dashboard?!
Ben Moss Embedding Templates into Tableau Desktop

Calculations

Dustin Wyers Advance with Assist: Multi-Number Formats for Single Calculations
Toan Hoang Tableau 2019.2: MakePoint and MakeLine
Dustin Wyers Advance with Assist: Filling in Null Records Without Filtering
Timo Tautenhahn Row-Level Security with Initial SQL
Raphael Teufel The Ultimate Guide to Year-over-Year Comparisons in Tableau
Eric Parker Fixing Duplicate Records in Tableau
Debbie Nemirovsky Tableau 101: Table Calculations, Part I
Klaus Schulte Polygon Waterfall Charts
Robert Rouse A Template for Date Calculations in Tableau
Eric Parker Converting Numeric Fields (1.5) into Time Fields (1:30) in Tableau
Michael Bracchi Seeing Stars (*) – Asterisks in Tableau
Kent Sloan Basket Analysis Using Parameter Actions and LOD Calculations
Joshua Milligan Spatial Joins in Tableau with Excel, Text, Anything