# Tableau Prep Builder: Connecting to files (Part 1 of 7)

> 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:** 2020-01-27
- **Format:** Video · 10 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep
- **Tools:** Tableau (prep)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-prep-builder-connecting-to-files-part-1-of-7-8
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/P9h4vX7SLSk

This is the first video in my Tableau Prep for Excel users series, where I walk through connecting to files. I show how to bring in Excel sheets, named ranges, hyper extracts and multiple files at once, choose your columns and sampling, and trace fields back to their origin file within a flow.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau Prep treats every source as a connection, with Excel tabs and named ranges both surfaced as tables
- The supported file connector list updates monthly, so check your version supports your data type before starting
- When you connect you can select, deselect and rename columns without affecting the number of rows entering the flow
- Prep samples large datasets by default, but you can switch to all data at a performance cost on big files
- Clicking a field in the flow highlights its origin file and the steps that generated it, making it easy to trace lineage

## Chapters

- 0:00 Series intro and Excel-user theme
- 0:38 Connecting to a single Excel file
- 2:27 Choosing columns and sampling options
- 4:10 Connecting to multiple files
- 4:49 Working with hyper extracts
- 6:43 Tracing a column back to its source
- 9:36 Wrap-up and next video

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-prep-builder-connecting-to-files-part-1-of-7-8

---
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