# Ask data improvements: New in Tableau 2021.1

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2021-03-28
- **Format:** Video · 8 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Analytics, Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (ask data, cloud)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-improvements-new-in-tableau-2021-1
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/zKvMZq9I7gQ

I walk through two new features for Ask Data in Tableau 2021.1: a new centralised assistance window aimed at both daily users and data owners, and the ability to switch off indexing on individual fields. I demonstrate how indexing affects whether Ask Data understands specific values like a city name in your natural-language questions.

## Key takeaways

- The new Ask Data assistance window centralises online help, feedback options and a setup guide, with content targeted separately at everyday users and data owners/admins
- Usage analytics show which fields people most often query and how the same question is asked in different ways, which is especially valuable for Tableau Online users who can't access the full Postgres database
- Reviewing the most-queried metrics helps you build standardised data sources with pre-built aggregations so users avoid asking complex questions
- You can switch off indexing for individual fields to improve query performance and stop Ask Data defaulting to detail levels you'd rather avoid
- Without an indexed field, Ask Data can't recognise specific domain values (e.g. 'New York City') as context, so indexing is what gives natural-language queries their understanding

## Chapters

- 0:09 New assistance window in Ask Data
- 1:00 Online help and sending feedback
- 1:38 Setup guide for data owners
- 2:07 Usage analytics and question insights
- 3:29 Switching off field indexing
- 5:40 Indexed vs non-indexed query demo

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-improvements-new-in-tableau-2021-1

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena