# Ask data for Viewers & new guided search interface. New in 2021.2

> 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:** 2021-06-25
- **Format:** Video · 11 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Analytics
- **Tools:** Tableau (ask data, calculated fields, cloud)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-for-viewers-new-guided-search-interface-new-in-2021-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69YESpCI13w

I walk through the Ask Data experience in Tableau 2021.2, this time from a viewer's perspective on Tableau Online. I cover how viewers access data sources and lenses, and demonstrate the new guided search interface that gives contextual suggestions as you type questions.

## Key takeaways

- From 2021.2, viewers (not just creators) can use Ask Data on Tableau Online and Server, though access depends on permissions set by content authors
- Lenses are author-built, focused subsets of a published data source that strip out unneeded fields so you can concentrate on a specific question like shipping or profitability
- The new guided search interface offers contextual suggestions as you type, understanding aggregations, field names and individual field values across the whole data set
- You can switch visualisation types and sort results on the fly, and a bar chart league table often beats the auto-chosen map for questions with no geographic correlation
- An equals sign next to a field marks it as a calculated field built by an author, so connect with the people building your data sets to understand the terminology and logic baked in

## Chapters

- 0:00 Ask Data for viewers in 2021.2
- 0:31 Navigating as a viewer
- 1:36 Working with data sources and lenses
- 3:07 Asking questions with guided search
- 5:28 Choosing the right visualisation
- 8:26 Understanding the data behind your questions

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-for-viewers-new-guided-search-interface-new-in-2021-2

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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