Are you creating a Tableau dashboard and need to leave instructions for users on how to use the dashboard, but you don't want to take up valuable space for these instructions? If so, this post is definitely for you. Using ... [Read More]
Standard procedure for analyzing large quantities of data involves the use of aggregation, or looking at your data in specially defined combinations. There are a variety of ways to aggregate your data, most of which require the use of basic ... [Read More]
1. Avoid the use of quick filters on dashboards to improve load times. Use cross tabs, heat maps and highlight table filters....sometimes pie charts work for this purpose as well. 2. Keep dashboards to 4 panes and imagine a Z pattern ... [Read More]
It’s been a remarkable year for me; without a doubt the best year of my career (ever). I was fortunate enough to be invited to give presentations on Tableau and SQL Server in Canada, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Louisiana and Michigan. I ... [Read More]
Tableau gives us a lot of ways to connect to data. We can easily connect to Excel, Access, SQL Server, Oracle … the list goes on and on. One place that’s not in that list is email. We get a ... [Read More]
There are a couple ways we can connect to data in Excel … today I want to show you one that many people overlook. You can simply drag an icon for a file that Tableau recognizes (Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel ... [Read More]
Last night was the Dallas – Fort Worth Tableau user group’s annual holiday party. They say there aint no party like a data geek party, I think the 15 data geeks in attendance last night would agree! One of my favorite ... [Read More]
A waterfall chart is visualization that helps illustrate the cumulative effect of multiple data elements. The waterfall chart isn’t my favorite visual, but I've softened to it lately. It's hard to not like a chart that is sometimes called the Mario chart due to ... [Read More]
From time to time, clients create proof-of-concept dashboards in Excel or other relational data source and then hit a wall converting it to an OLAP cube. I’m never surprised to see it happen. What most people don’t realize is that ... [Read More]
As a general Google fan, BigQuery looks like it could be an interesting project to monitor for the data crunching and BI geeks among us. The project could flop entirely due to lack of marketing or a partnership foundation ... [Read More]
