Tableau Data Guide: New in Tableau 2022.3

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. 22.3 is out. We're

0:02getting stuck in straight away with Data

0:05Guide. Now,

0:05DataGuide is a new feature that aims to

0:08help users use dashboards. It's really

0:11quite a simple tool.

0:12So let me just move my face over here to

0:14the left hand side. And you can see that up

0:16here,

0:16right at the top is a new button with Data

0:19Guide. Now, depending on where you're

0:21looking at this,

0:22I've either seen a binoculars or a road

0:25sign. I think I'm seeing a road sign here

0:27because I'm

0:28using a pre-release version of the next

0:30version 22.4. That's what the Tableau

0:33developer account

0:34runs on. So that's why I'm seeing a road

0:35sign. So they might have changed this icon

0:37for future

0:38versions. But nonetheless, you should see a

0:40binoculars or a road sign here at the top.

0:43Now, when I click on that, you'll see that

0:45it opens up a pane here on the right hand

0:47side. And

0:47the really cool thing about this is it

0:49starts to give you some sort of guide about

0:51this dashboard.

0:52Now, there are two things to bear in mind

0:54with this feature is that it works at

0:56different levels

0:57of detail. So when you click on it for the

0:59first time, it works at the dashboard level

1:01. In fact,

1:02here, it's not working at the dashboard

1:04level, it's working at the view level, let

1:06me just click away

1:06from that you can see here that it's

1:08actually now on the dashboard level. When

1:10you come to the

1:10dashboard, it tells you who's published it

1:12some details, I wrote this description as a

1:14little

1:15story for dashboard developers around the

1:17world, this is pretty much what we have to

1:19do.

1:20And I've got a couple of links here, I'll

1:21talk a bit more about this shortly. You've

1:23got the data

1:24in this dashboard, which is a basically a

1:26drop down and showing you all the fields in

1:28the dashboard,

1:29then you've got the outliers, essentially,

1:31Tableau is using some of the smarts behind

1:33explained

1:33data to bring out the outliers in the

1:35dashboard. And if I click here, show more,

1:37it shows me all of

1:38those outliers there. So at a dashboard

1:41level, this is what's going on. The nice

1:43thing is that

1:44when I then click on any particular

1:46visualization, it goes on to what's called

1:48the view level. So

1:49if I go ahead and click on this map, I'll

1:51move myself back over here, then you'll see

1:53that this

1:53whole view starts to change to talk about

1:56the specific view that you've selected. So

1:59I've

1:59selected a map. And you can see that if I

2:02move my face up here, the mapping link here

2:05is now specific

2:06to this visualization. So the description

2:08and the links can be specific to the

2:10dashboard and the

2:11visualization. This is going to be useful

2:13when you're trying to explain to someone

2:15how a particular

2:15calculation is done. Or maybe there's some

2:18additional context in an intranet or in

2:20another

2:20place online that you want to link people

2:22to, you can do that at the visualization

2:24level. And that's

2:25super useful. The other thing to bear in

2:27mind is that it also shows you applied

2:29filters. Now at the

2:30moment, this is just showing you a list, it

2:32's not sort of doing any sort of

2:34highlighting, what I

2:35would really love this feature to do is

2:36actually show you where the filters are.

2:38And if there's any

2:39actions show you where those actions are

2:41being activated. If I if I go ahead and let

2:44's say click

2:44on a particular country, you can see here

2:46that an action has been applied, but it's

2:48not immediately

2:49obvious that the action is applied. So I'd

2:51love to see this also start to support not

2:53just filters,

2:53but actions on the dashboard, and even some

2:55hints as to how those actions work. I'm

2:57sure that's in

2:58the pipeline somewhere. So we'll hopefully

3:00see that in the future. Once you've gone

3:03down to the

3:04filters level, you then start to see the

3:06data in this visualization. But because I'm

3:08clicked on the

3:09map, I'm only getting a list of fields in

3:11the map. If I click back out, I get a list

3:13of fields across

3:14the entire dashboard, you can see

3:16everything that's being used. So this is

3:18really, really nice.

3:19And it brings a lot more clarity, hopefully

3:21, to what's going on inside of a dashboard.

3:24Now,

3:24when I click on these, I was hoping to see

3:26a bit more information. And I think this

3:29might be in,

3:30in a way to avoid clashing with another

3:33capability. If I just put my face here on

3:35the left

3:36hand side, you can see here on the left

3:38hand side is the data details view. And

3:40this tells you about

3:41the data set itself. So these two features

3:44could almost sort of clash in a way because

3:46in essence,

3:46they're almost doing the same thing. And

3:48when you click on data details, and you do

3:50actually get

3:50more information about the fields

3:52themselves. And then you can obviously go

3:54and read the description.

3:55And if you select View more, it actually

3:57throws you out to a I believe, a metadata

4:00perspective of

4:00this. So I think this is only because I

4:02have the data management add on applied on

4:04my developer

4:05account that I'm seeing this capability. So

4:08it's sort of a bit confusing here that

4:10these two things

4:11almost doing the same thing. And with a

4:13data guide, you kind of you kind of stop

4:15short with just a

4:16list of the fields without any of the good

4:18stuff to kind of tell you what the fields

4:20are, and so on

4:20and so forth. So it's super, super

4:22important now as a user as an author, to

4:25start naming your

4:26filters, because those filters are going to

4:28come up in there. And as if I just click on

4:29this view,

4:30again, you can see that the applied filters

4:32, if you're just dropping in filters, and

4:33you've got

4:34lots of hidden filters, and you know, you

4:36're not really paying attention to what's

4:37going on,

4:38they're going to end up in this applied

4:39filters list. And that's going to cause you

4:42maybe some clarity issues when users are

4:43using your dashboard. Now, the other thing

4:47that's

4:47exciting about data guide is it really sort

4:49of holds two new features. The first one is

4:52called

4:52explanations. Now this hosts a couple of

4:54features, which we're kind of used to the

4:56first one is

4:56explanations, which is sort of similar to

4:58explain data. And when we click on a

5:00particular explanation

5:02here, it gives us a little bit of context,

5:04it tells us about Finland, you you you see,

5:07Ma, I don't know

5:08if I've said that right. Let me know in the

5:10comments. But nonetheless, you get a bit

5:12more of

5:12a breakdown. And this is very similar to

5:14what we've seen there. So very similar to

5:16explain data, but

5:17this is working inside of this data guide

5:20capability. And that's super cool. The

5:22other thing that we

5:23can't see here yet, because this is a

5:24dashboard that's only just been published,

5:26and this feature

5:27has only been live for a day is something

5:29called data change radar. Now what this

5:31feature does

5:32essentially takes a snapshot of what's

5:34going on inside of your dashboard and shows

5:36you changes

5:37over time. So in order to show you that I'm

5:39going to have to leave a workbook running

5:40with a data

5:41set that changes daily. So we can see that

5:43happen over time. So maybe in a week's time

5:45, check back

5:46on the channel, and you'll see a video

5:47digging into that feature in more detail.

5:49But nonetheless,

5:50this is a really, really nice capability.

5:52Now the other thing I just want to show you

5:54is what

5:54happens when you click on the mark, we've

5:56done the dashboard level. So if I click out

5:59of everything

6:00here, let's just go back all the way back.

6:02This is the dashboard level, you can see a

6:04general

6:05overview of the whole dashboard, you click

6:07on a view, you get the view level breakdown

6:09of what's

6:09going on. And the very last level of detail

6:11is unmarked level. So when you click on a

6:14data point,

6:14you get a very specific bit of information

6:17about that here in the data guide as well.

6:19So it is

6:20very, very powerful. It's always trying to

6:22help users understand what's going on. And

6:24I think

6:24this is a very nice addition, you can

6:26actually see this starting to layer in a

6:28couple of other

6:29amazing capabilities in the future,

6:31especially if you start to think of things

6:33like data dictionaries

6:34being applied into Tableau, and some of

6:36that sweet stuff. So I just hope that all

6:39of that doesn't end

6:40up living behind the data management add on

6:42, I hope we get more of it just here as a

6:44base

6:44capability inside of the product. Now, this

6:47is what it looks like as a viewer, what

6:48does it look

6:49like as an author. So if I just switch over

6:51to desktop, you can see this is the actual

6:53dashboard

6:54that I published up, I use superstore just

6:56as a very basic way to show you something

6:58familiar

6:59that you yourself can try. So when you're

7:01an author, you can see here, I do see the

7:03binoculars

7:04icon here on the top right hand side, this

7:05is what you've actually got to click to see

7:07this view. So

7:08if I just click on that, you'll see it

7:10disappears. And if I go ahead and click on

7:12the binoculars,

7:13it comes back. When it comes back, you see

7:15the overview description. So here you can

7:18see the

7:18dashboard details. This is sort of

7:20confusing, because when you publish a work

7:22book, let's just

7:23go here to the publish option. And the

7:25dashboard description almost to me feels

7:27like the description

7:28you'd also write when you publish. So it

7:31would be great to have these two things

7:33sort of connected,

7:34so that this sort of makes sense, because

7:36it's weird that you can write different

7:38description

7:38in these two places. So that would be

7:40something nice to see maybe some sort of

7:42unity between these

7:43two things. And the second thing is that

7:45when you when you start to sort of fill

7:48this information in,

7:49you've got the ability to add links. Now, I

7:51actually spent a bit of time trying to see

7:53what

7:53the limit was, I got bored, the long story

7:56short, you can add more links than you'll

7:58ever need,

7:58in my opinion. But to add a link, you just

8:01select add link, you give it a label, and

8:03then you just

8:03paste the URL and you're off to the races.

8:05Now, what I think this is really good for

8:07is not only

8:08linking to useful guides, but also you

8:10could potentially link to documentation, if

8:12this

8:13documentation is talking about how the

8:15dashboard works, and how it's built, and

8:16maybe a changelog,

8:17you could add that here. So you could, for

8:20example, just add a link that says change

8:22log,

8:23and then you could send go off to like a

8:26Google Doc or something like that. And you

8:29could I'm

8:29just going to put a hashtag in this

8:31particular case just to I can't do that. I

8:33need to do that.

8:34No, it won't let me do that. So google.com.

8:36Let's just put that in. No, it has to have

8:39HTTP, I think

8:40HTTP. I can't even spell here. HTTP, there

8:45we go. It has to have a proper URL for it

8:48to work. It

8:49doesn't let you do anything funny. So you

8:51can manipulate Tableau server or Tableau

8:53cloud with

8:53URLs. And so there you go, you can add

8:55something like a changelog into this. So

8:57you can have a

8:58guide, a changelog, and maybe a link out to

9:00an owner or department or something else,

9:02or even

9:03a video. And that's what's going to be

9:05really nice about this, you could have, let

9:07's say, user

9:08instructional video. And I wonder what else

9:13you could add to this, I've even thought of

9:16what if

9:16you could add like a meeting request in

9:18here, maybe there's a there's a session

9:21that runs that

9:22shows people how to use this. And you could

9:24add that in just before, you know, the

9:26session runs.

9:26And then once the sessions run, you go in

9:28update it, take the link out, you could add

9:30so many

9:30interesting things in here that are really

9:32sort of good. Anyway, once you've done that

9:34, once you've

9:35added dashboard level detail, you can then

9:37click on a individual chart and then go

9:40about adding

9:41that detail again, for each and every one

9:43of these, you can see here on the map, I've

9:45actually

9:45already added a mapping link already. So

9:47that's a really nice capability. Now, this

9:50feels like a lot

9:51of work. And I can already see authors

9:53going yet another thing to do. But I think

9:56done with some

9:57good taste, this can be very, very useful.

9:59And I think organizations will definitely

10:01need to align

10:03on best practice on how it's going to be

10:04used within a company because users are

10:06going to need

10:07to expect some sort of consistency at the

10:10end of this. Now, the other issue with this

10:13is that

10:14obviously, if you're using Tableau cloud,

10:16it's just enabled. And if you're using

10:17Tableau server,

10:18and you've just upgraded and you're using

10:20this feature, then it will just come to

10:21this feature

10:22is available pretty much already for

10:24everyone. And one thing I've been asked is,

10:26hey, can this

10:27feature be switched off across the whole

10:29server across the whole site, it doesn't

10:31look like that's

10:32been enabled. If I go back to the dashboard

10:34level instructions, you can see that I

10:36actually linked

10:37to how the guide works. And so I click on

10:39that, and it takes us to the instructions,

10:41I actually

10:42think the instructions for this are super

10:43clear, and are really well done, I'll link

10:45them in the

10:45description below. But nonetheless, if I

10:47just keep going down here, you can see that

10:49the only option

10:50to really control this is at a user level.

10:53So let's go down here, you can control the

10:55visibility of

10:55this in your account settings in the

10:57Settings tab. So let me show you how that

10:59works. If I just go

11:00back to my dashboard here, I'll go back to

11:03my little icon here at the top left, your

11:05account

11:06settings is the third option down, go ahead

11:08to that. And in here, you get a bunch of

11:10different

11:10settings. And what you want to do, I never

11:12scroll this list, because I never know

11:14where everything

11:14is. So what I do instead is I click in a

11:17white space, I do command F or Ctrl F on

11:19Windows,

11:19and I just type the thing I'm looking for.

11:21This time, I've written guide. And you can

11:23see that it

11:23immediately finds the section that I'm

11:25looking for. And then I can just say, hey,

11:28close data

11:28guide by default. And that's the only

11:30option you sort of got data guided

11:32displayed by default,

11:33the first time that a worksheet is open,

11:35you can close that, save that. Now, I was

11:38hoping to find

11:39a setting to switch it off entirely. But

11:41that doesn't seem to be that setting, I can

11:43't I can't

11:44sort of find any other place to do it. If I

11:46go back to the instructions, you can see

11:48here that

11:49to choose whether you want data guide to be

11:51open by default, that's the only setting

11:52you have,

11:53you don't really have the ability to switch

11:55off the feature entirely. So that will be

11:58an

11:58interesting one. I've server admins tend to

12:00like a little bit of control, and they hate

12:02it when users

12:03sort of forced into a capability. The other

12:05thing is if authors haven't sort of gone

12:07about updating

12:08these, then users will click on this and

12:10basically find nothing. But I think the

12:12feature degrades

12:13very gracefully. If I just go back here,

12:15and I just move this back to the left hand

12:17side,

12:18I think the feature degrades gracefully,

12:20because let's say you go to it for the

12:22first time, and it

12:23shows up and this is what you see. And okay

12:24, here, I've got a bit of a description.

12:26Well,

12:27if you don't have a description, it's just

12:28going to look like that it's not going to

12:30sort of scare

12:31anyone, it's not going to hurt anyone, I

12:32still think this is useful to see these

12:34fields, if

12:35you're naming your fields badly, then

12:36unfortunately, that's now going to be

12:38visible up from incentive

12:39with everyone. And the detected outliers,

12:41you might not like this. But I think, look,

12:44we have to get to a point where at some

12:46point, tabular has to help users use dash

12:48boards better.

12:49And if if the suggestion is that look, this

12:51this information isn't true, well, I think

12:55some of this

12:55can possibly be controlled by the way

12:57explained data works. So something I haven

12:59't tested yet is

13:00if I go into explain data, enable that and

13:03restrict the fields upon which that is

13:05working, does that

13:06have an impact on this because has a very

13:08similar interface, and I'm not entirely

13:10sure if the two

13:12are linked. So that'll be something I'll

13:14need to have a test. If I go down to the

13:17very bottom,

13:18you can see that it tells me 15 of 35

13:20fields analyzed. And if I click on those

13:21fields,

13:22you can see what those fields are. So I'm

13:25wondering if you disable explain data,

13:27does this feature work? In fact, let me try

13:29that. And I'll get back to you in a second.

13:32Let's just

13:32try that. So let's go back out. Detect outl

13:35iers. No. So even if you disable explain

13:38data, that's

13:38not going to work, it's still going to be

13:40able to do the analysis. I have disabled it

13:43site wide. So

13:44just to show you that I've done that

13:46setting. Here, I'll go to settings. And if

13:49I click on that,

13:50and I just do my trick again, and I search

13:52for explain, you can see that explain data

13:54is enabled,

13:56disabled, sorry, on this particular

13:58dashboard. So it's, it's sort of, sort of

14:03not ideal, really,

14:04that you can't really control that. So in a

14:07way, you could argue that sort of tablet

14:09have snuck the

14:10feature back in through another through

14:13another gateway, if you kind of see it that

14:16way. So

14:16maybe there's something I'm not

14:18understanding, maybe there's more to this

14:20feature. So what I'll

14:21do is I'll put something in the comments if

14:23I find out any additional information

14:26beyond when

14:26I'm publishing this video, it's been really

14:28disappointing that we haven't had the

14:30preview

14:30out early enough with these features in it

14:33to actually be able to try it. So the world

14:35has

14:36only had these features for a day. So we

14:37haven't had as much time to interrogate

14:39them as it would

14:40do. But if you've got any questions, leave

14:42them in the comments below. And I'll get to

14:44them as soon

14:45as I can. If you've liked the video, be

14:47sure to hit like, subscribe if you want to

14:49do that as well,

14:50that really helps me out. And I'll catch

14:52you in the next video.

14:54This uses a capability that we're kind of

14:53used to in the Oh, what is it called? It's

14:58completely

15:01escaped me.

15:04Transcribed by https://otter.ai

15:06Transcribed by https://otter.ai

15:10[ Silence ]