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Tableau | Data visualisation | Productivity

One of my favourite small features in Tableau: Describe sheets and fields: Quick tip

Command+E on any sheet spits out a full plain-English breakdown of how it's built, and almost nobody uses it.

Tim Ngwena •18 August 2021 •1 min read •6 min watch •2.1K

Watch on YouTube

Select a sheet and press Command/Ctrl+E (or use Worksheet > Describe Sheet) to get an automatic plain-language breakdown of what's on rows, columns, filters, colour and detail, including how each filter is configured
The describe output is a quick way to learn Tableau by reinforcing the contextual memory of what sits on each shelf and what each calculation does
Right-click any field in the data pane and choose Describe to see its data type, details and the top ~20 member values without loading the whole field, using the load button to fetch values for calculations
Describe also works inside a calculated field, giving you the same breakdown in the context of the calculation
You can copy describe outputs straight into a Word document alongside screenshots as a fast way to document a workbook

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video, I'm

0:01going to be showing you a nice little trick

0:03that I don't

0:04think we use enough. And it's essentially

0:06called the describe function, I'm going to

0:08show it to you

0:09in two contexts. Okay, to start with, I'm

0:11going to open up Tableau. And I'm just

0:13going to go and open

0:14the sample workbook that's over here on the

0:16bottom left, I'm just going to hit Super

0:18store. And what

0:19that should do is open up that workbook for

0:21us in Tableau, we're just going to use this

0:23as an

0:24example, you don't need to build anything

0:26for this video. Now, what you can do when

0:28you click on any

0:29sheet, you get this sort of contextual

0:31highlight that goes around the sheet. So if

0:33I just click on

0:34this map here, if I actually have to click

0:36on a data point, otherwise, the sheet doesn

0:38't do

0:38anything. But if I just click on the sheet,

0:40you'll see that they get this sort of gray

0:41border. If I

0:42click on another sheet that goes gray too.

0:44And so that contextual sort of highlighting

0:46lets me know

0:47that I've selected the sheet. Once you have

0:49a sheet selected, you can actually go up to

0:52the worksheet

0:53menu. And if you go down here, you'll see

0:55this option saying to describe the sheet.

0:57Now there's

0:58also a shortcut for this, which is Command

1:01E on a Mac, Ctrl E on Windows. And this is

1:04sort of where

1:04the magic happens. So you can see here, I

1:06've got the chart, I'm just going to hit

1:07Command E. And

1:08boom, we get a description of the sheet.

1:11Now, I can't tell you how useful this is.

1:13Because if ever,

1:14there was like an automatic way of just

1:16describing how something is built, it's

1:18essentially all here.

1:19So if you just I'm just going to read this

1:20exactly as it says it, the plot of summer

1:22sales for order

1:23date month broken down by category color

1:26shows details about order profitable, the

1:29data is

1:29filtered on action state province region

1:32order date and profit ratio. The action

1:34state province

1:35filter keeps 127 members the region filter

1:38keeps central north and south. The order

1:41date filter

1:41keeps all the values the profit ratio

1:43filter keeps all values. And you get the

1:45point. It's literally

1:47spelling out exactly what's happening this

1:49year. And okay, it's a bit robotic, but it

1:51's actually

1:51pretty good. The thing I really like about

1:53this is this, it tells you what's on the

1:55shelves,

1:56rows, columns, filters and color. And

1:58actually, this is a very good way to learn

2:01Tableau. Anytime

2:02you have any worksheet, this is sort of the

2:04contextual memory that should be running in

2:06the

2:07back of your head, what's on rows, what's

2:08on columns, what's on filters, and what's

2:10on color,

2:11what is in each of these calculations. So

2:13it actually breaks down the dimensions and

2:15what's

2:16going on there. And it breaks down the

2:17measures along with the calculations. And

2:19this is just such

2:20a nice way of describing a sheet. Now, I

2:23have been known to have been asked to

2:25document a Tableau

2:26workbook. Now, it's kind of funny, I find

2:28being asked that question really sort of

2:30strange, because

2:32you asked me to document a tool that is

2:34like, it's incredibly easy. And you asked

2:36me to document how

2:37to build a sheet. And my response has

2:39always been, well, why would someone who

2:42doesn't know Tableau

2:43be doing this, right? You don't want to do

2:46want to give an analytics tool that's got a

2:48really

2:49complicated dashboard to someone who doesn

2:50't have experience, you know, working with

2:52dashboards.

2:53But anyway, I've been asked to do it. And

2:56so what I essentially did is I went through

2:58each of the

2:58sheets, and I just wholesale copied each

3:00and every one of these into a Word document

3:02. And then what I

3:03did is I took a screenshot of the chart, I

3:05put it right at the top, and then I titled

3:07the section,

3:08and I moved on to the section, I spent

3:10about half an hour doing that for a really

3:11complicated

3:12workbook I built ages ago. And then I was

3:14told it was too much information. So you

3:16can't win

3:17these days. But nevertheless, it's a really

3:19, really good way of documenting a sheet and

3:22just

3:22actually just, you know, getting a little

3:24bit more context about Tableau and what it

3:25's doing.

3:26Now, the other context of the describe file

3:28is actually when you go into any particular

3:30sheet,

3:31and you look at the fields on the left hand

3:33side, as you scroll through each and every

3:35one of these

3:35items, you'll see that you get lots of

3:37dimensions, and you get lots of sort of

3:39contextual information

3:40with these icons here on the left hand side

3:43, that tell you about data types, what's

3:45going on with

3:45hierarchies, whether fields are Boolean or

3:49not, all of these are sort of good

3:51indicators of what's

3:52going on. But if you want a really sort of

3:55in depth, sort of breakdown of a particular

3:58field,

3:58just right click on it. And if you go down

4:00to the bottom, you see the describe feature

4:02again. So if

4:03I hit describe, you'll see that I get here

4:05city, and I get all the details, and I even

4:08get the

4:09first few members, it doesn't do all of

4:10them, it normally does the top 20. But this

4:12is a really

4:13good way of seeing what's in the field

4:15without loading the entire field. And

4:17sometimes you might

4:18not get the information. So you see here,

4:20there's a little load button, it's sort of

4:22grayed out,

4:22because there's nothing else to load. But

4:24if you load one of these, and it's not got

4:26values,

4:27that's essentially because it's just you

4:28just need to click that button. And it's

4:30just not being

4:30cached. So if I was I think if I go to

4:33something like a calculation, you can see

4:35here that it

4:36doesn't have the initial values, because it

4:38's a calculation. And when I hit load, it

4:40actually goes

4:41and gets the calculation data for us. So

4:43that that's that's the load button working.

4:45But those

4:46are some really sort of nice contexts to

4:48use the describe button, you can see here

4:50that it's,

4:50it's just really simple on measures. But

4:52you know, if you're working with a database

4:54that has lots of

4:55complicated data, and you just want to get

4:57a handle of Okay, what does this data look

5:00like,

5:00it's a nice way of getting in there and

5:02finding out. Last context is, of course, in

5:05a calculated

5:06field, let's say we write a really

5:08complicated calculation, we bring it in. So

5:10let me just bring

5:11in sales forecast here from the left hand

5:13side. And when we click on the sales

5:15forecast, inside

5:16of it, you'll see that on the right hand

5:18side, there's a calculation. So the

5:20describe function

5:21also works to tell you a bit more about

5:23what's going on. And you can see that it's

5:25right here.

5:26So of course, if I hit describe, it

5:28actually does a pop out. And it shows me

5:30exactly the same

5:31information that I saw when I right clicked

5:33described on the left hand side. So it's

5:36essentially the same way of accessing the

5:38same thing. But here you're doing in

5:40context of a

5:40calculation. So that's it command D, and

5:43essentially the describe function, which

5:45works in a sheet,

5:46it works on the dimensions and measures

5:48pane. And it also works in calculation, it

5:50's a really,

5:50really nice tool to have, I use it all the

5:52time just to get some context into a field

5:54and what's

5:55going on. I think you should do the same.

5:56And if you've enjoyed this video, you know

5:58what to do.

5:59If not, let me know in the comments and let

6:00me know what you'd like to see instead.

6:02Thanks for

6:02watching.

Rollup

Tableau has a built-in Describe feature that turns any sheet, field or calculation into a plain-English breakdown of how it's built, and it's underused for both learning Tableau and documenting workbooks.

Demonstrated on the Superstore sample workbook, but works on any workbook with sheets, fields and calculations.

The Breakdown

Describe a whole sheet 0:09

Click a sheet to select it (you'll see a grey contextual border appear), then go to Worksheet > Describe Sheet or press Command/Ctrl+E. This spits out a plain-language summary of what's on rows, columns, filters, colour and detail, plus exactly how each filter is configured and how many members it keeps.
Use it to reinforce how Tableau works 2:01

Reading the sheet description is a good habit for learning Tableau generally: it forces the same contextual memory you should be building yourself — what's on each shelf and what each calculation and dimension is doing.
Use it for fast documentation 2:23

One way to document a workbook is to copy the Describe Sheet output into a document alongside a screenshot of each chart, titling each section as you go — a much quicker route than writing up the build logic by hand.
Describe individual fields in the data pane 3:26

Right-click any field in the data pane and choose Describe to see its data type and details plus roughly the top 20 member values, without having to load the whole field into view.
Load values on demand 4:20

If the describe pop-up shows a greyed-out load button with no values, that's because the field's values (particularly for calculations) aren't cached yet — click load and it fetches them.
Describe inside a calculated field 5:03

Describe also works from within the calculation editor itself, giving you the same breakdown you'd get from right-clicking the field in the data pane, but in the context of editing the calculation.

Worth Knowing

The sheet description reads a bit robotically, but it's accurate and thorough enough to be genuinely useful.
When Tim documented a workbook this way it was reportedly too much information for the requester, so tailor how much you paste in rather than dumping everything.

Use It When

Reach for this when you inherit or need to explain someone else's workbook, when you want a fast way to document how a dashboard is built, or when you're learning Tableau and want to check your understanding of what's driving a sheet or calculation.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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