Finding the best documentation for Tableau & making sure it's the correct one.

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.