# KMZ Support in Tableau: 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:** 2021-04-02
- **Format:** Video · 7 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, maps)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/kmz-support-in-tableau-new-in-tableau-2021-1
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/fz_08fFYH8U

I walk through the new KMZ spatial file support in Tableau 2021.1. I explain what KML and KMZ files are, then connect directly to a KMZ file in Tableau Online and explore the spatial data inside it.

## Key takeaways

- A KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file is a Google-designed format for delivering spatial data efficiently, and a KMZ file is simply that same KML packaged inside a zip folder.
- Tableau 2021.1 lets you connect directly to a KMZ file in both Desktop and the browser, removing the prep work previously needed to handle individual KML files.
- Because Tableau unzips and reads the compressed file (a 5MB KMZ can hold a 99MB KML), expect connection and rendering to be a little slower than usual.
- KMZ files are often split into regions or sections, so you can keep one shared file and drag in only the geometry parts you actually need.
- You can pull geometry, name and description fields into the view, though descriptions may contain HTML or iframes rather than plain text.

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/kmz-support-in-tableau-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