# Tableau bookmarks, save a single sheet

> 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:** 2020-10-28
- **Format:** Video · 8 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Productivity
- **Tools:** Tableau (bookmarks, dashboards, data modelling, filters, maps)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-bookmarks-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/nX3fY2UpuR8

I explain what Tableau bookmarks are and how they differ from copying and pasting a sheet. I build a quick dashboard, then show how to save a single sheet as a .tbm bookmark file and bring it into another workbook so you can reuse charts across projects.

## Key takeaways

- A Tableau bookmark (.tbm file) saves a single sheet persistently, unlike a copy-paste which only lives in your pastebin until you close Tableau
- Create a bookmark via the Window menu, then Bookmark and Create Bookmark, saving it to a folder you can return to later
- Bring a bookmark into another workbook through File then Open, selecting the .tbm file rather than using Import Workbook
- When the bookmark brings in a duplicate data source, right click and Replace Data Source to consolidate, then delete the redundant connection
- Bookmarks carry across the sheet and its data source, but any actions need rebuilding in the target workbook, which can throw a filter error you simply drag out of the pane

## Chapters

- 0:00 What is a Tableau bookmark
- 0:42 Building sample charts and dashboard
- 3:02 Copy-paste versus bookmark
- 4:40 Creating and saving a bookmark
- 5:21 Opening a bookmark in another workbook
- 5:59 Replacing data source and fixing actions

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-bookmarks-2

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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