20+ Windows Tableau Desktop shortcuts you should know.

0:00Hey, it's Tim here and in today's video I'm

0:02going to be taking you through how to use

0:03Tableau shortcuts in Tableau desktop.

0:06This time I'm making the video for Windows

0:08users. If you haven't already checked it

0:09out and you're a Mac user, go and find my

0:11video for Mac shortcuts.

0:13I'm going to put it in the description

0:14below and it's also popping up on screen

0:16right now.

0:17Right now I'm on the documentation which

0:18actually goes through all the shortcuts I'm

0:20going to be talking about today.

0:22This is not anything original. I haven't

0:23stumbled into any of these shortcuts on my

0:26own.

0:27In fact, when I first found this space and

0:28realized there were this many shortcuts, it

0:31was a really humbling moment for me because

0:33I thought I knew the product well and here

0:35I was learning hundreds of things that I

0:37didn't even know existed.

0:39But this is a great page. I'm going to put

0:41it in the description. Let's get stuck into

0:42these shortcuts.

0:44I'm going to fire up Tableau and we'll get

0:46started with our first one.

0:48Okay, we're here in Tableau desktop and the

0:51first shortcut I'd like to show you is the

0:54ability to open up a new workbook. That's

0:57control N. So if you hit control N, what

0:58that does is it opens up a new workbook.

0:59Now you only need to have Tableau open for

1:01this to actually work and it will

1:02essentially open up a new workbook.

1:05Now the use case here is if you're working

1:06on a workbook already, you're doing

1:08something complicated and you just want to

1:11try something out with another data set or

1:13you just want to check something in another

1:14database.

1:15I often use Tableau to go and interrogate

1:16databases myself. So actually opening up a

1:19new workbook, connecting to the data,

1:20checking the thing you need to check.

1:22Then if it actually works out into

1:23something you want to use, you can import

1:25that back into the main workbook using

1:27something like a bookmark or exporting the

1:29sheet and then importing it again into

1:32another workbook.

1:33So that's pretty much it. Control N opens

1:34up a new workbook.

1:36Okay, now we're in a workbook. I know there

1:38's nothing in here, but what I'd like to do

1:40is show you another one, which is the

1:41ability to create a new sheet.

1:43Typically, you might grab your mouse and go

1:45down here to hit the new sheet icon or you

1:46might go up to the worksheet section and

1:48create a new worksheet.

1:50You can see right here that it actually

1:51says Control M is the worksheet option.

1:54So let's go ahead, click the new worksheet

1:56there, but then let's hit Control M

1:57ourselves and you'll see that it opens up a

2:00new worksheet.

2:01Now this is really, really fast. You can

2:02just smash this as many times as you like.

2:05And so if you're in the real flow of

2:06analysis and you don't want to sort of

2:08reach for the mouse and do something, you

2:10can just hit Control M, try something new

2:12there and then incorporate that into your

2:14dashboard.

2:15Now this next one is really fascinating. I

2:18don't use this that often, but it's useful.

2:21It's kind of a weird shortcut.

2:23So the reason you don't use it is because

2:24it actually goes ahead and describes what

2:26you're looking at in any given worksheet.

2:29So for this, I'm just going to hop into one

2:31of the sample workbooks. I'm going to go

2:33into this monthly sales segment chart here

2:35and I'm just going to open that sheet.

2:38Now once in this sheet, I'm just going to

2:39close Show Me here so you can see the sheet

2:41in its full view.

2:43If I go ahead and hit Control E, what this

2:45actually does is it opens up something

2:47called the sheet description.

2:49And this is basically Tableau's best

2:50attempt at describing what exactly is in

2:53this sheet.

2:54Now there's quite a lot of information here

2:56. In fact, it's sometimes very, very useful.

2:59Let's say you're documenting something on a

3:00particular sheet or you need some

3:02information to know how a calculation is

3:03done.

3:04Instead of looking at the marks pane,

3:06filters pane and figuring out how

3:07everything works, you can just open this.

3:10And if you sort of assimilate text a lot

3:12better than you assimilate the interface of

3:14Tableau, then you've got everything in a

3:16really nice structured format here,

3:18including even the data source, the way

3:20calculations are done and the specific

3:22format and data types for a particular

3:24field.

3:25OK, this next one's really easy. What this

3:27will let you do is cycle through the

3:29different tabs very easily.

3:31So if you make sure you're inside of Table

3:32au, sometimes if you click outside of Table

3:34au and you try a shortcut, it won't work.

3:36You need to make sure you click inside of

3:37Tableau, then go ahead and try the shortcut

3:39.

3:40So this one's Control, Shift, Tab. OK, so

3:43Control, Shift, Tab will shift through the

3:46workbook.

3:47It's a really nice, simple shortcut. Now,

3:49that one went backwards.

3:51If you just want to go forward, you can

3:52just hit Control, Tab, and that will take

3:54you forward.

3:55So Control, Tab takes you forward. Control,

3:57Shift, Tab takes you backwards.

3:59OK, for this next one, I'm going to need

4:00you to really pay attention because this

4:02shortcut is a little bit subtle, but it

4:05really, really helps when you're in the

4:06flow of analysis.

4:07OK, let's say that I'm over here in the row

4:10shelf. So I'm going to double click in the

4:12row shelf to open up an ad hoc calculation.

4:14An ad hoc calculation is essentially when

4:16you start just typing a calculation

4:19straight into the rows shelf or the column

4:22shelf or pretty much any of the other

4:24shelves.

4:25You can just start typing formulas and it

4:27will start allowing you to type a

4:29calculation.

4:30Now, I haven't written this one properly,

4:32so let's go ahead and just type in S with a

4:34capital S. Hit Enter and that will auto

4:36complete.

4:37Now, the thing that this shortcut does is

4:40it changes the focus from this ad hoc view

4:42to the search pane on the left.

4:45And the search pane is over here. I've just

4:46got my mouse on it there.

4:48So just watch what happens. If I hit

4:50Control, F, it changes my focus to the

4:53search pane on the left.

4:55Then I can use some of the search operators

4:57to find a measure, let's say, called Profit

4:59.

5:00And then I can then take the Profit item

5:03there, drag it into my still open ad hoc

5:06calculation and we're working.

5:09So this shortcut allows you to basically

5:11quickly switch the data search pane and do

5:13a little search, find the fill that you

5:15need and then bring it in.

5:17In case you forget or you're not sure, you

5:18can do a little bit of contextual search

5:20without taking your hands off the keyboard.

5:23So it's really, really, really powerful. It

5:25's one of those things that's kind of hard

5:27to get your head around the first few times

5:29.

5:29But actually, once you start using it in a

5:31calculation, you'll find that it's quite

5:33useful.

5:34The other thing to bear in mind, though,

5:35with this is that it doesn't work if your

5:37focus is on another modal window that's

5:39already been created.

5:41So in this particular case, if I put my

5:43cursor here and I just type cursor here,

5:46then I hit Control, F, you'll see it doesn

5:48't move.

5:49My cursor stays inside of the calculation

5:52window. And so this is really, really

5:55important.

5:56You have to make sure that your cursor is

5:58outside of the window because this is modal

6:00.

6:01Once your cursor comes out of here, when

6:02you hit Control, F, it does start working

6:05and then you can start doing search

6:07parameters.

6:08And you can even just use your cursor to go

6:10up and down between these, hit profit and

6:13enter.

6:14And then you basically got the fill that

6:16you need.

6:17OK, now I've broken this view a little bit.

6:19So let's go ahead and fix this before we

6:21move on to our next shortcut.

6:23Let me just remove that. And for this next

6:26one, this is a really simple one.

6:27You often do this in the browser. You hit

6:29Control, R, Control, F5 or F5 to refresh.

6:32In Tableau, you can pretty much do the same

6:33thing. Hit Control, R.

6:35And it basically just does a refresh of the

6:37data source.

6:38So if you're connected live to a database,

6:40this is kind of handy if you've got things

6:41that are changing quite frequently.

6:43Or maybe you're looking at some cached data

6:44, you know it's cached because the queries

6:46have been running in the background.

6:48Hit Control, R just to make sure there's a

6:50fresh pool of data and you're pretty much

6:52good to go.

6:53Now, another shortcut whilst we're on the

6:54topic of data, if you hit Control, D, this

6:56allows you to open up the data pane.

6:59Simply go to your data source and hit

7:00connect whatever you might be connecting to

7:02, whether it's an actual database,

7:05Access, Excel or any of the very many

7:07database sources that Tableau has available

7:11to you.

7:12Just hit Control, D wherever you are in the

7:14worksheet and that will open up straight

7:16away.

7:17Now for this next one, we're going to

7:18switch over to a different sheet.

7:20In fact, we're going to build one. Let's go

7:21ahead and build a very simple view so we

7:23can see what's going on.

7:25I'm going to start by dragging cells onto

7:27rows, then bring in something from the

7:29product hierarchy onto columns.

7:31Let's bring in category.

7:33And we're going to rotate this 90 degrees

7:35just to make sure that it works really well

7:36.

7:37I'm going to show you a shortcut on how to

7:38do that a little bit later on.

7:40Now, the key thing here is this shortcut

7:42actually allows you to move an item from

7:45the data pane here on the left,

7:47straight to the marks pane or the columns

7:49and rows or even filters and pages without

7:51using your mouse.

7:53Yes, you're probably saying, how is that

7:54even possible? Well, this is how it works.

7:57Simply select the field you'd like to move

7:59to one of these positions.

8:01So I'm going to hit subcategory and now you

8:02can see it's selected, it's highlighted in

8:05blue.

8:06And then all we need to do, let's say I

8:07want to move this to the color shelf, all I

8:10need to do is hit Alt Shift.

8:13So Alt Shift and this time O and it moves

8:15it onto the marks pane and puts it onto the

8:17color shelf.

8:19Now you're probably wondering, well, how do

8:20I know what these shortcuts are?

8:22Well, if you head over to the documentation

8:24that I've put in the description below, it

8:26actually has a range of these.

8:28So O will put it onto the color shelf. L

8:31will put it onto detail.

8:32So let's go ahead here and put product name

8:35onto detail, Alt Shift L and you'll see

8:37that's added it to the detail and it's

8:39changed our colors a lot more.

8:41Let's say I wanted to put segment onto the

8:43filter pane. It's Alt Shift and of course F

8:46for filter and there we go.

8:48It actually asks me how would I like to

8:50filter this. I can hit consumer here

8:52because I've actually got an option here.

8:54This isn't as good. I kind of wanted to put

8:55it there and just show me the filter.

8:57That would probably be a much nicer little

8:59tweak for that feature.

9:01This is a nice way of adding fields onto

9:03the visualization without taking your hands

9:05off the keyboard and moving them around.

9:08Once you get to know this, it also gets

9:09really quick.

9:10For example, if I want to add profit onto

9:12the columns, well, the columns is typically

9:16the Y axis.

9:17So if I hit Alt Shift Y, then it will add

9:20that onto the Y axis which is of course

9:23columns.

9:24And of course if you do, let's say, let me

9:27take segment, we do Alt Shift X, the X axis

9:30, well of course it puts segment onto the X

9:32axis.

9:33And because we've filtered it to consumer,

9:35we're only seeing the consumer ones.

9:37So this is not a great sort of showcase of

9:39visualization or anything like that.

9:41But just bear in mind, we've added pretty

9:43much all but two items onto this view

9:45without using a mouse.

9:47My mouse is still in the same place it is

9:48over here on the left-hand side where we

9:50started.

9:51So that's a really cool set of shortcuts.

9:52Check out all of them.

9:54There's about seven that you'll probably

9:55want to use quite often.

9:57Actually just knowing they exist means you

9:59can add it into your workflow and make

10:00things a lot easier.

10:02Now I want to clean this view up and then I

10:04'm going to show you a shortcut that will

10:06help you change and rotate what's on

10:08columns and rows very, very quickly.

10:11Let me just clean this up. So I'll remove

10:12profit and remove segment. Just make this a

10:14lot simpler.

10:16Remove product and just return it back to

10:19one set of colors.

10:21What I'll also do is just increase the

10:22space here per category so that it's a

10:24little bit easier to see what's going on.

10:27Okay, so this is a great shortcut. What it

10:29does is it rotates the chart 90 degrees.

10:31It's essentially the same as hitting the

10:33shortcut up here, but you don't actually

10:35have to go and hit your cursor with the

10:37mouse.

10:38You don't actually have to use the mouse to

10:39find that and then click on it to get it to

10:41do what you want.

10:42The shortcut you're going to want here is

10:44control W. Okay, so this just switches this

10:46around.

10:46And here's the thing, watch how fast this

10:50is.

10:51I can go really, really fast. I can

10:53literally spam it and it works. I've got

10:54control W all over my screen now.

10:56They're going to slowly start to disappear,

10:57but you get the point.

10:59It's much, much faster than me finding the

11:01cursor and hitting this and rotating it

11:02every single time.

11:04So if you're in the flow of analysis and

11:05your hands are in the keyboard, just hit

11:07control W. That will rotate it for you.

11:09Now, once we're here, we might as well also

11:11see how to flip the orientation of column

11:13labels at the bottom of the view.

11:16So column labels are these fields here at

11:17the bottom of the view. Sometimes you want

11:19them to be horizontal as they are now,

11:21and other times you want them to be

11:22vertical. So again, for this one, it's

11:24control L and all that does is it rotates

11:25them.

11:26So again, it saves you having to switch

11:28those around yourself and it makes it much,

11:31much easier to get that done very quickly.

11:33One thing to note, though, if you change

11:35this to custom rather than automatic, then

11:37it doesn't work.

11:39If I hit control on now, you'll see it's

11:41not working. Change this back to automatic,

11:43hit control L and it works.

11:46I actually think that's a bug. I think it

11:47should work regardless.

11:49You're basically just changing the

11:50orientation and 90 degrees, a bit like

11:52turning something on a swivel.

11:54So that's pretty much the feature. But just

11:56be careful that if you've changed them

11:57manually, then this shortcut isn't going to

11:59work.

12:00Now, let's say I want to clear this works

12:01heet really quickly. You just need to hit

12:04alt shift backspace, alt shift backspace,

12:07clears the sheet.

12:08Nice and clean, ready to go for the next

12:10view. Now, the next one hurts me a lot.

12:13You know, I just don't understand people

12:15who fly objects on their dashboard. It's

12:18like a crazy world.

12:19If you haven't already, check out my layout

12:20containers videos. If you watch that, you

12:23'll never ever float an object on the

12:24dashboard again.

12:26But if you do fly objects on the dashboard,

12:28well, there's a little my shortcut here

12:30that I'm going to show you.

12:32So if you bring the object onto the view

12:34and then you just, you know, use your arrow

12:37keys to move it up and down one pixels.

12:39It's very, very subtle, but it's perfect.

12:41But here's the thing. Why would you do this

12:44? Why would you punish yourself like this?

12:46This is crazy. Why would you punish

12:47yourself like this? I mean, moving things

12:50one pixel at a time is just crazy.

12:52Create layout containers, create structure,

12:54create organization, and things will

12:55naturally just fall into the right place.

12:58You'll even be able to get away with five

13:00pixels here and there and it'll still look

13:02great.

13:03But in case you forgot what this video is

13:04about, it's about shortcuts and the up,

13:07down, left, right arrows will help you n

13:09udge content on a floating dashboard.

13:12Now, if you want to resize a floating

13:14object, you just hit alt and then you can

13:16do the same thing and it actually changes

13:18the size again.

13:20Now, it does it one pixel at a time. And

13:22again, this is specifically for people who

13:24are punishing themselves on floating dash

13:27boards.

13:28But yeah, it's exactly the same as moving

13:29things a pixel around. But this time you

13:32just, you know, shifting the size one pixel

13:35at a time.

13:36It's just a really painful way to work.

13:38Okay, for this next one, we're on the water

13:40forecast because we're going to be talking

13:42about tables.

13:43So this is a nice little shortcut. If you

13:45're in the table, hit control, then an arrow

13:47, and it basically changes the size of the

13:49individual cells.

13:51So I'm holding control right to make the

13:53columns wider, control left to make the

13:55columns narrower, control up to make the

13:58rows taller, control down to make the rows

14:01shorter.

14:02And there you go. That's pretty much a

14:04really nice sort of set of shortcuts for

14:06your tables.

14:07Just to give your tables that sort of

14:09little bit of extra spacing.

14:11It doesn't work so well here because this

14:12is a very large table. But you know, if you

14:14have to build tables, that's maybe a

14:15shortcut just to get to know.

14:17Probably only need one or two tweaks to a

14:19table to just get it right.

14:21And then of course, you can still always

14:22make the manual adjustments to the

14:24individual rows if you need to.

14:26Just head on over to the table. You have to

14:27find your cursor right on that sweet spot.

14:30And then once you space one, it actually

14:32makes them all equally sized.

14:34So just by changing one, a lot of people

14:35will kind of come here and try and move

14:37this to where they think March should end.

14:40Then they'll realize they've made the whole

14:41thing too small. And then you get a bunch

14:43of hashtags.

14:44What you actually want to do is just assume

14:46the size of one is going to be what's

14:47applied across the board and you're done.

14:50OK, that's pretty much it for the shortcuts

14:51. I hope you really enjoy the video.

14:54If you want some shortcuts for Tableau

14:55Online and Tableau Server, head on to my

14:57video for Max.

14:59At the very end of that video, I actually

15:00went through and I did some shortcuts for

15:02Tableau Online and Tableau Server if you're

15:04using WebEdit.

15:05So check out the end of that video if you

15:06want a few more shortcuts you can put to

15:08use.

15:09Otherwise, if you've enjoyed this video,

15:10you know what to do. Drop a comment below.

15:12Let me know what kind of content you'd like

15:13to see in the future. I'll catch you in the

15:15next one.