# Grouped steps

> 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:** 2020-09-16
- **Format:** Video · 6 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep
- **Tools:** Tableau (prep)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/grouped-steps-prep-builder
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/4ugLqvXDWUA

I walk through a new Tableau Prep feature that lets you group sections of your flow. I cover how to create and ungroup steps, add descriptions and names, the rule that steps must be connected, and how to save a group as a reusable flow file.

## Key takeaways

- At release this grouping feature isn't supported on Tableau Online or its dev instance, so you'll see a warning and won't be able to schedule a published flow; click 'use features' to continue locally
- To group steps they must be directly connected, and you can isolate a top section by selecting it plus the step ahead to make grouping work
- Groups can be expanded, collapsed, renamed and given descriptions, but the description only shows when collapsed, not when expanded
- You can't nest a group inside another group, and any connection leaving a grouped step stays visible outside the group
- You can right-click a group and save its steps as a reusable flow file on disk for use in other flows

## Chapters

- 0:10 Creating a basic group
- 1:16 Expand, collapse, describe and rename
- 2:16 Grouping requires connected steps
- 3:24 You can't nest groups
- 3:45 Ungrouping and grouping whole sections
- 4:39 Save a group as a reusable flow
- 5:11 Release notes and upgrade advice

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/grouped-steps-prep-builder

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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