0:00Something I get asked all the time is how
0:02do you do stuff in Tableau?
0:04But one of the things I do a lot in
0:05response to that is I send links to the
0:08Tableau documentation
0:10to those questions and a lot of people
0:11actually find that useful. So I always
0:12wonder, hey,
0:13do people know how to find the right
0:15documentation for the version of Tableau
0:18that they have?
0:19I've actually just done a video on versions
0:21of Tableau, check that out. In this video I
0:23'm going
0:23to show you how to always find the right
0:25documentation for the version of Tableau
0:27that you're using. Let's get stuck in. Okay
0:29, so I'm here on the Tableau website. This
0:30is actually
0:31the best place to start but what I must say
0:33is that it's actually quite hard to get to
0:35this place
0:35so you must sort of remember this journey
0:38to this location to always end up in the
0:40right place. It's
0:41only a couple of clicks. The first thing
0:43you need to do is to go to this Resources
0:44tab. The Resources
0:45tab is just over here at the top. So you go
0:48to the Resources tab, open that up and if
0:50you go down to
0:51Support, you can also find another link
0:53here that says Tableau Help. Now you could
0:56just google Tableau
0:57Help and it will get you there as well. So
0:59if I click on that you'll see that it takes
1:01me to Tableau
1:02Help. If I google Tableau Help, you'll see
1:05that it's actually the top link here and I
1:08end up in
1:08roughly the same place. So whichever method
1:11you want to take, do that. I tend to prefer
1:13the website
1:14version because sometimes they change the
1:16website and what can happen is Google
1:18rankings and Google
1:19search responses take time to adapt to
1:21websites. I always like to go from Tableau
1:23's website for that
1:24reason. Now when you get to this page, it's
1:26really important that you understand what
1:28version of
1:29Tableau you're using because if you don't
1:30understand the version, you'll get the
1:32wrong
1:32documentation. Documentation can change
1:35from release to release especially when a
1:37new feature
1:37has been added that fundamentally changes
1:39the behavior. For example, if you were
1:40looking at data
1:41connections prior to the data model, you
1:43would have missed a whole swathe of
1:45documentation around
1:46the data model if you'd picked the wrong
1:48documentation. So the way to know that you
1:50're
1:50using the right version is number one, know
1:53the version of Tableau that you're using
1:55and then
1:55number two, head to this tab and make sure
1:57you select that version before you do
1:59anything else
2:00on this page. Let's go ahead and do that.
2:02So let's hit this little drop down here and
2:03you'll see
2:04that it actually has quite a few versions
2:06going all the way back to 2018.2. And what
2:09you can do
2:10once you've picked the version is you'll
2:12see that all the links update and now that
2:13you've selected
2:14that link, anything you click on now will
2:16be for specifically that version of Tableau
2:19. So for
2:20example, if I go here to Tableau prep and I
2:22select what's new, it will actually send me
2:24to the version
2:25of the release for that particular version.
2:26In fact, in this particular case, it hasn't
2:28done that.
2:29The website's mucking around with me
2:31because I'm trying to do a demo. But if I
2:33actually go back to
2:34let's say 21.2 and we go to something like
2:36desktop and I go to what's new, you'll see
2:39that it actually
2:39goes to 21.2 in this particular case. So
2:42that's number one. It's super important to
2:44get this.
2:44Now sometimes I end up going into an
2:46environment where I have no access to the
2:47internet, but I still
2:48like to have a documentation with me. So I
2:50think of those situations ahead of time and
2:53what I do is
2:53I go and grab them from the Tableau website
2:55. Now this can be a little bit hidden mess
2:57because
2:58sometimes not all the versions have the
3:00correct PDFs. But if I go to the latest
3:02version for 21.4
3:03here and I go to let's say desktop, if I
3:06select the PDF, fingers crossed, we
3:08actually get the
3:09right PDF here for the right version. So
3:10you can see that the link at the top is
3:12updating, it's
3:13downloading it and here we have the
3:15documentation as a PDF. And for the record,
3:18this is 3,567 pages.
3:20So this is not the kind of thing you want
3:22to print out, but it's actually quite handy
3:25if you know
3:25exactly which section of this documentation
3:27you're going to need in the work that you
3:29're doing to make
3:30sure that you're doing it correctly. I tend
3:32to do this more for Tableau Server than for
3:33Tableau
3:34Desktop, but that's just something to be
3:35aware of. Keep a copy of this in Evernote
3:37in case the
3:38Tableau website goes down and you need to
3:40be able to search this quickly. I just tend
3:42to keep a
3:42version of this on my machine at all times
3:44and I know to find it in Google Drive or
3:46whatever you
3:47keep your files in. And it's a really nice
3:49way of sort of backing yourself. Now the
3:51final thing I
3:52will say about all of this is that the
3:53version of Tableau really really matters
3:55and I just don't
3:56mean the version number. If you're looking
3:58at Tableau Server Help, be sure to make
4:00sure you look
4:01at the right operating system. So you can
4:03see here that Tableau Server has a version
4:05for Linux
4:06and it has a version for Windows. Now in
4:08most cases the documentation is going to be
4:11the same
4:11across both OS's, but in cases where you're
4:14managing infrastructure, Linux and Windows
4:17have completely different requirements and
4:18they are run in a completely different way.
4:20Even though the core of Tableau is
4:22fundamentally the same in both products, it
4:25's going to require
4:26slightly different expectations and
4:28slightly different environment variables to
4:30manage.
4:30That's the final thing I'd say with this
4:32documentation. Make sure that you're paying
4:34attention to the differences and make sure
4:36you're using the latest and greatest
4:38information.
4:39Now Tableau documentation is extremely
4:42thorough. I can't tell you how many times
4:45people in comments
4:46to my videos ask me a question and I
4:48literally highlight the question, I copy it
4:52, I paste it
4:53in Google, hit enter and the first hit is a
4:55knowledge base article from Tableau. Happ
4:58ens
4:59all the time. I don't tell people, I don't
5:01send a "let me Google that for you" link
5:03because that's
5:03just facetious, but nonetheless nearly all
5:07the time Tableau has a help guide or a KB
5:09knowledge base article that will help you.
5:11Let's say that I'm struggling with dates.
5:13Let's just search that. How to format dates
5:16in Tableau. Now if I hit that you'll see
5:21the first
5:21hit is a Tableau help page and guess what?
5:24It's in the documentation that I've just
5:27shown you.
5:27If you look at this little bookmark link
5:30tree, if you work all the way back here it
5:33goes back to
5:34the Tableau help page. Nearly everything on
5:37Google actually finds its way back to this
5:40particular thing. Another thing to look out
5:42for is sometimes the knowledge base
5:44articles and these
5:45URLs tend to start with KB just here. Let
5:48me see if I can actually find one in here
5:50that might be
5:51useful. Let me just search KB on the end of
5:54it and yeah exactly Google's really clever.
5:58It knows what
5:59I'm looking for. It knows that if I type KB
6:01I'm actually looking for the knowledge base
6:03article
6:03and if I go to this, this is formatted in a
6:05slightly different way. Knowledge base
6:08articles
6:08are designed to be solutions to problems,
6:11very specific problems to save you having
6:13to go to
6:13documentation and they're designed to be
6:15search friendly. So they look slightly
6:17different. You
6:18typically have the date when this was last
6:20modified or updated, some related
6:22information
6:23on the right hand side and then if I scroll
6:25down you have the question, the environment
6:28and then
6:28the answer and you tend to have more than
6:30one option. You don't typically just have
6:32the one
6:32option. You can do it in a couple of ways
6:34and then there's a little sort of ask at
6:36the end.
6:37Did this resolve your problem yes or no?
6:39You hit yes or no. That helps Tableau know
6:42that their
6:42feedback is, know that their answers are
6:44doing what they're supposed to, answering
6:46questions
6:47and if not they improve it. That's how this
6:49works. So those are all the ways you can
6:51find help or
6:52find documentation for any particular
6:54problem in Tableau. I'm showing this
6:56because I'm going to
6:57start linking to this video when people ask
6:59me how I know something or how I view
7:00something because
7:01it just happens all the time. Even people
7:03who've been using Tableau for years will
7:05ask me how do
7:06I know how something works, where did I
7:08find it out and I always say the
7:09documentation. Thanks
7:11for watching. If you've liked this video
7:13put a like, hit a subscribe, let me know
7:15what you'd like
7:16to see instead if you don't like it and I
7:19'll catch you in the next video.
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