# 20+ Mac Tableau Desktop shortcuts you should know.

> 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:** 2020-09-13
- **Format:** Video · 16 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Productivity
- **Tools:** Tableau (calculated fields, cloud, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/20-mac-tableau-desktop-shortcuts-you-should-know
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/5VPx89IyRHo

I walk through more than 20 keyboard shortcuts for Tableau Desktop on Mac, from creating new workbooks and worksheets to navigating sheets, resizing tables, and assigning fields to shelves without touching your mouse. I also cover shortcuts for Tableau Online and Server, plus a Mac-only menu search trick.

## Key takeaways

- Command N opens a new Tableau instance, Command T creates a new worksheet, and Command W closes a workbook back to the launch screen without quitting Tableau entirely.
- Command E opens an auto-generated sheet description that documents marks, shelves, filters, calculations and data source, useful for handing over documentation.
- Command F switches focus to the data search pane mid-calculation, but only works when no modal calculation window is stealing focus.
- Option Shift plus a letter assigns a selected field to a shelf (O for colour, X/Y for axes, T for text, S for shape, P for pages, C for columns) entirely by keyboard.
- Control Command plus arrows resizes rows and columns, Control Command W swaps rows and columns, and on Mac the Help menu search bar finds any function and reveals its shortcut.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Why use keyboard shortcuts
- 0:45 New workbooks and worksheets
- 1:42 Sheet description and navigation
- 3:07 Closing and saving workbooks
- 3:52 Switching focus to the data pane
- 5:38 Refreshing the data source
- 6:00 Resizing rows and columns in tables
- 7:33 Assigning fields to shelves
- 9:23 Swapping rows and columns
- 10:08 Mac Help menu search trick
- 11:55 Shortcuts for Tableau Online and Server

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/20-mac-tableau-desktop-shortcuts-you-should-know

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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