# Explain data for viewers & new enhancements: New in Tableau 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:** 2021-06-27
- **Format:** Video · 16 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Analytics, AI & ML
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, explain data, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/explain-data-for-viewers-new-enhancements-new-in-tableau-2021-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SbK5wFKGVQ

I walk through the revamped Explain Data feature in Tableau 2021.2, which is now available to viewers as well as authors. I show the new right-hand pane interface, how the analysis works across mark attributes, relevant measures and extreme values, and how authors can enable and curate it.

## Key takeaways

- Explain Data is now accessible to viewers, not just authors, but it is off by default and must be enabled per workbook
- The interface has moved from a pop-up to a persistent right-hand pane, hinting Tableau will use this space for more contextual features
- Authors can exclude irrelevant fields (such as forecast parameters) so Explain Data's statistical analysis only considers meaningful measures
- Enabling extreme value explanations exposes record-level underlying data, so it should be left off for workbooks containing sensitive data
- Explain Data works on a single selected mark rather than a grouped dimension selection, and you can pop any generated chart out into a new sheet

## Chapters

- 0:26 Opening Sample Superstore
- 1:04 Spotting anomalous data points
- 1:43 The new Explain Data pane
- 3:16 Drilling into mark attributes
- 4:16 Popping charts out to a sheet
- 6:07 Relevant measures and forecast noise
- 7:18 Enabling Explain Data for viewers
- 8:36 Extreme values and security warnings
- 9:36 Excluding fields from analysis
- 11:51 Testing on another data point
- 13:38 Why this is a bigger deal

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/explain-data-for-viewers-new-enhancements-new-in-tableau-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