The goal of Tableau Desktop Fundamentals is to help you build confidence and real skills using Tableau to turn data into useful, easy-to-understand visuals that support better decisions at work. By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Understand the basics of working with Tableau, including how to navigate the interface, use key features, and get comfortable with visual analytics tools.
• Connect to different types of data sources and understand how Tableau handles live and static data.
• Create and customize a variety of charts, such as bar charts, scatterplots, line charts, pie charts, and heat maps to answer real business questions.
• Organize and manage your data using filters, groups, hierarchies, and calculated fields to control what your audience sees.
• Work with dimensions, measures, and marks to shape and format your visuals in a way that is clear and informative.
• Design interactive dashboards that bring your findings together and allow others to explore the data with filters, tooltips, and clean layouts.
• Save, publish, and share your work so your team can use your insights, and manage your data sources with confidence.

Need different skills or topics? If your team requires different topics or tools, additional skills or custom approach, this course may be further adjusted to accommodate. Please see our Tableau Training Suite for additional Tableau, reporting, data analytics, visualization and other related topics that may be blended with this course for a track that best suits your needs.  

This introductory-level course is designed for new users who want to start using Tableau for data analysis and business reporting. It is a great fit for anyone curious about business intelligence tools, including analysts, project managers, operations staff, and other professionals who work with data in their roles. There are no specific requirements for the course. Just a few business skills you should be familiar with, as listed below.

Please note that this list of topics is based on our standard course offering, evolved from typical industry uses and trends. We will work with you to tune this course and level of coverage to target the skills you need most. Course agenda, topics and labs are subject to adjust during live delivery in response to student skill level, interests and participation.

 Getting Started with The Tableau Environment

• Tableau Products
• What is a Data Visualization?
• The Viz
• The Start Page
• The Tableau Interface
• Workbooks and Sheets
• Navigating Workbooks and Sheets

Connecting to Data

• The Role of Data in Tableau
• Static vs. Live Data Sources
• Types of Data Sources
• Establishing a Data Connection
• Editing a Data Source
• Data Source Page
• Data Grid vs. Metadata Grid
• Refreshing a Data Source
• What Happens When You Connect to Data?

Creating a Visualization

• The Data Pane
• Data Types
• Changing Data Types
• Dimensions and Measures
• Tableau-Generated Fields
• Understanding Dimensions
• Understanding Measures
• Searching for a Field
• Understanding Shelves
• Building a View
• The View Area
• What is Show Me?

Saving, Publishing, and Sharing

• Saving Visualizations
• Publishing Visualizations
• Saving Data Sources
• Location of Saved Data Sources
• Publishing Data Sources

Chart Types and Uses

• Tabular Data (Crosstabs or Pivot Tables)
• Pie Charts
• Line Charts
• Bar Charts
• Heat Maps (Density Maps)
• Highlight Tables
• Treemap Charts
• Gantt Charts
• Bullet Graphs
• Scatterplots
• Types of Correlation
• Outliers
• Histograms

Discrete vs. Continuous

• Discrete vs. Continuous
• Converting Fields Between Discrete and Continuous
• Using Totals and Aggregation
• Understanding Discrete and Continuous Time
• Convert a Measure to a Dimension

Adding Visual Details

• Understanding Marks
• Marks Card
• Text Mark
• Shape Mark
• Bar Mark
• Line Mark
• Titles and Captions
• Legends
• Tooltips
• Tooltip Command Buttons
• Annotations
• Creating Annotations
• Formatting Annotations

Formatting Basics

• Formatting a Workbook
• Themes
• Editing Axes
• Changing Axis Range
• Editing Tick Marks
• Formatting Fields
• Formatting Field Labels
• Formatting Numbers and Null Values
• Resizing Tables and Cells

Working with Multiple Measures

• Working with Multiple Measures in a View
• Adding Individual Axes for Each Measure
• Creating Combined (Blended) Axis Charts
• Understanding a Dual Axis Chart
• Creating a Dual Axis Chart

Organizing, Filtering, and Sorting

• Hiding Fields
• Data Properties
• Renaming Fields
• Creating Aliases
• Sorting Data
• Sorting Options
• Creating Folders
• Creating Hierarchies
• Using Hierarchies
• Drill Up or Down a Hierarchy
• Understanding Filters
• Creating Filters
• Applying a Filter
• Filtering Qualitative Data (Dimensions)
• Filtering Quantitative Data (Measures)
• Creating Groups
• Creating Sets

Mapping Data Geographically

• Understanding Mapping Concepts
• Latitude and Longitude
• Working with Location Data
• Creating a Simple Map
• The View Toolbar

Using Calculations

• Understanding Calculations
• Creating a Calculated Field
• Formatting Calculations
• Working with Functions
• Working with Aggregates
• Applying Quick Table Calculations

Creating Dashboards

• What is a Dashboard?
• Building a Dashboard
• Dashboard Interactivity
• Creating Dashboards for Different Devices
• Dashboard Size Options
• Tiled vs. Floating Items
• Switching Between Tile or Float

Creating Stories

• What is a Story?
• The Story Workspace
• Creating a Story