Video |

Tableau | Data visualisation | Productivity

Change formats for PDF subscriptions

Set 'unspecified' on your PDF subscriptions and they'll always print crisp at any paper size.

Tim Ngwena •12 August 2020 •1 min read •4 min watch •4.7K

Tableau 2020.3 lets you set and later change the page size and orientation of PDF subscriptions
Choosing the 'unspecified' page size produces the highest quality PDF that scales crisply to any paper size when printed
Subscriptions aren't listed in the Explore content section because they're alerts, not content
You find and edit your subscriptions under the Tasks area, in the Subscriptions tab
You can also create and change subscription formats programmatically via the REST API, useful for server admins

0:00In Tableau 2020.3, Tableau have added some

0:05additional functionality to PDF

0:07subscriptions

0:08to allow you to change the format of the

0:11PDF. Let me show you how that works. For

0:13this one,

0:13I'm actually going to go to one of my old

0:15visualizations here of the Barcelona

0:17marathon.

0:18What I want to do is export this as a PDF

0:21subscription. This isn't a good use case

0:23for

0:23a subscription, but it's a nice way to show

0:25you what the PDF subscription can do. I'm

0:28going to hit the subscribe button. You can

0:29just see that it's up here at the top. If

0:31I just bring my cursor up here, you can

0:33just see that this is the option here to

0:35subscribe.

0:36If I hit that, you will now see that I get

0:38the standard interface to change the format

0:41here and go to PDF. Now what you can do is

0:44you can actually change these specific

0:46sizes.

0:47Previously, this wasn't possible. You can

0:50also do this once you've created a

0:52subscription.

0:53I'm going to choose unspecified. It's

0:55actually a pro tip to choose unspecified

0:57because what

0:58this does is it means Tableau creates the

1:00highest quality PDF it possibly can. Then

1:03when you zoom in, it just looks crisp all

1:06the time. When you then go to export it or

1:09print it, well, the PDF tool automatically

1:11scales it down to fit whatever paper size

1:14you're printing on. You don't actually need

1:16to choose a paper size upfront. It's a

1:18little

1:18bit unintuitive, but trust me, it works

1:20really, really well. The quality of the

1:22unspecified

1:23paper sizes is just much better than if you

1:25choose A4 where it pre-renders it to that

1:28specific size. Let's choose unspecified.

1:30Let's go to landscape for this particular

1:32visualization.

1:33I'm going to subscribe myself and I'm going

1:36to set it to pretty much maybe not once a

1:39maybe not every day, maybe let's say weekly

1:41, maybe even monthly. Let's just avoid

1:44getting

1:44spammed on my inbox and maybe in a month's

1:46time, I'll remember that I set this up. Hit

1:49subscribe and now that's done. Now, if I go

1:52back to explore, you're probably wondering,

1:54"Well, where do I check where the

1:56subscription has been set up?" Well, that's

1:58not anywhere

1:59in the content hierarchy. Subscriptions are

2:01actually alert, so they don't typically

2:03turn

2:03up as content and that's what the explore

2:05section is about. It's about content. To

2:08find

2:08your subscription, you must first have

2:10access to the subscriptions that you've

2:12created.

2:13Then if you go to tasks, you can see here

2:15that I've got my extract refreshes and over

2:18here, third option from right, I've got the

2:20option for subscription. Let me just

2:22highlight

2:23that for you as well right there. Now, if I

2:25click on that tab, you'll see that I've

2:28got my name here. I've got the actual

2:30visualization and it's a PDF. Now, if you

2:32want to change

2:33that format, you just hit these three dots

2:35and you can go ahead and change the format

2:37and you specifically get the option to

2:39change the page size and the orientation.

2:42Maybe something

2:42wasn't working in an email or a document

2:44and you want the next one to be correct,

2:46you can

2:46go in here and change that to portrait or

2:49change it back to landscape. Notice if I

2:51change

2:52it to what it was before, this option is

2:54grayed out. If I change it to something new

2:56, then

2:57there's actually something to change. That

2:58's a really nice feature to sort of stop you

3:00doing unnecessary changes as it were, but

3:02that's pretty much the feature in a

3:04nutshell.

3:05The other thing you can do is using the

3:07REST API, you can also set up subscriptions

3:09and

3:09change the format there. That's something

3:11really useful if you're a server admin and

3:13trying to do this in a programmatic way.

3:15Something I highly recommend if you have

3:17that capability

3:18within your team. So that's pretty much it.

3:20If you've enjoyed this video, check out

3:21more

3:22videos on 2020.3 in the playlist. Otherwise

3:25, be sure to let us know what other kind of

3:27content you'd like to see on the channel.

3:29Hit subscribe and stay tuned.

Tableau release note: In Tableau 2020.3, we’ve added the ability to specify PDF options for PDF subscriptions. This way users can select the page orientation (portrait or landscape) and paper size of the PDFs attached tosubscriptions. This expands on just portrait PDF subscriptions that have been available since 2019.3.This video is part of a larger playlist on Tableau 2020.3. Be sure to check out other videos in the playlist and subscribe for more content.https://tableautim.com -------Join my Discord Server. https://discord.gg/shBuxXr it’s a little sparse at the moment but hang in there.