Best of the Tableau Web: Developing your Tableau skills

Welcome to my August review of the best blogs and podcasts shared by the Tableau community. Sometimes people say they don’t know how to get started or that they find some content intimidating. I understand that sentiment⁠—the Iron Viz entries showcase people with very impressive skills. But you shouldn’t be intimidated; everyone entering Iron Viz was a beginner once. The hardest step is the first one. Fortunately, our community is wonderful at helping out beginners.

This month, I wanted to highlight a couple of excellent places you can start in order to develop your skills. First of all, I’d highly recommend you get a Tableau certification. This requires practice and a bit of dedication, but it is easier when you have someone to follow along with. That’s why Catherine Rietman’s blog series is so exciting—she is chronicling her journey to becoming a Tableau Desktop Specialist. If you’ve ever thought of getting certified, following along with Catherine will really help. There’s more: Sarah Jellence also gave her certification tips following her own successful test. And as you develop your skills, you’ll begin to explore all the chart types you can build in Tableau. Kevin Flerlage launched his ambitious Tableau Chart Catalogue in August, and it’s a rich resource of examples of just about every practical chart you could ever want to build in Tableau.

Finally, one last note about Iron Viz: “Win or learn, you can’t lose.” That’s a very deliberately chosen motto. Entering Iron Viz, no matter your skill level, makes you a winner. Chris Love wrote a great reflective post about this, which I recommend. All of us at Tableau love seeing people get involved—it’s the single most important step you can take to improving your skills and bringing more voices to our wonderful #datafam.

Andy Kriebel #TableauTipTuesday: Using Measure Names to Update a Parameter
Klaus Schulte Drawing Step Area Charts in Tableau
Alexander Waleczek Turbo Colourmap in Tableau
Lorna Eden #TableauTipTuesday Week 33 – How to label both ends of the % of Total Bars
Toan Hoang Tableau QT: Calendar Table
Nick Jastrzebski Removing values from quick filters using Tableau’s Order of Operations
Joe Stokes Style your KPIs – Displaying positive or negative change

Mark Bradbourne Make this look like Excel…
Sarah Jellenc How to Prepare for the Tableau Certified Associate Exam
Lindsay Betzendahl Bring your personality and skills to life: Stand out with an interactive resume
Joshua Smith Is Your Data Story Actually A Story?
Christine Rietmann Becoming a Tableau Desktop Specialist
James Smith 12 Lessons From My Journey From Tableau Amateur To Ambassador
Robert Crocker How to Deconstruct WorkoutWednesdays
Bridget Cogley How We Collect Data Matters
Christine Rietmann Becoming a Tableau Desktop Specialist – Part 1: Create and Save Data Connections
Kris Curtis Launching a self-service analytics programme (part 2)
Ella Worsdale Learning through teaching
Jeffrey A. Shaffer Font Awesome Icons for Tableau
Sarah Bartlett Practical Tips to Help you Prepare for the Tableau Desktop Certified Professional Exam
Christine Rietmann Becoming a Tableau Desktop Specialist – Part 2: Data Connections & Data Properties
Bridget Cogley Designing Tableau Dashboards in the Age of Digital Distraction

Eric Parker Data Scaffolding in Tableau (Calculating a Series of Values Based on Only a Start and End Date)
Lorna Eden #TableauTipTuesday Week 35 – How to use Date Scaffolding
Mark Bradbourne Customer Churn and Loyalty
Toan Hoang TAB114 / Level of Details (LOD)
Andy Kriebel #TableauTipTuesday: How to Create a Waffle Chart Using Data Densification

Robert Crocker What to Watch Out for with Donut Charts
Justin Lyons Optimizing Portal Filters: Setting up the “Hidden” Filter Sheet
Rosario Gauna Step Area Chart
Kevin Flerlage Cases for Collapsible Containers

Rosario Gauna Drill Down on Sales with Subtotals using Parameter Actions
Jeffrey Shaffer Map Marker Clustering in Tableau Using Parameter Actions
Georgie Grgec Difference From Average Set Action

Carl Allchin 2019: Week 30
Sylvie Imbert Tips on splitting columns in Tableau Prep Builder

Andre De Vries How to quickly scaffold a Tableau Extensions Manifest file