How to use the Export Button to PDF, PowerPoint, or images in Tableau 2020.1

0:00In Tableau 2020.1 Tableau have added the

0:07new feature where on a dashboard you can

0:09add a

0:10button to allow the user to export to PDF,

0:14PowerPoint or images.

0:16Let's have a look and see how that's done.

0:19I'm going to open up the sample workbook

0:21here, Superstore, and as that opens, this

0:25is actually

0:25an important feature because it allows

0:28users to take snapshots to a meeting, it

0:30allows

0:31users to export images to software like

0:34PowerPoint, although that's not ideal,

0:37typically you want

0:39users to sort of play and interact with

0:42their data, this is a useful use case for

0:44those

0:44sort of static scenarios.

0:46So if you look closely in the objects pane

0:49over here, you'll see there's a new option

0:52and this says export.

0:54So what we're going to do is we're going to

0:56drag that into our dashboard and I'm going

0:58to put it here on the right hand side of

1:01this view and you can see here that when I

1:04do that

1:05it drops this sort of option over here and

1:07I can expand it out and give it slightly

1:09more

1:10space.

1:11Now when I click on the item, I get the

1:12ability to edit the button.

1:14You can see here the first option is the

1:16ability to edit the button.

1:17So let's click on that and what will happen

1:19is you'll get this interface.

1:21Now what this interface allows us to do is

1:24essentially customize what this button does

1:27.

1:27So you get the ability to choose whether it

1:30's an image, a PDF or a PowerPoint.

1:32Unfortunately you don't have all but if you

1:34're publishing this to a Tableau dashboard,

1:37but

1:37if you're publishing this to a Tableau

1:39server, the user already has the ability to

1:41export

1:41these three things.

1:42So this is designed to be a slightly more

1:45sort of useful button just to allow someone

1:47to do a one hit export to a particular file

1:50format.

1:51So I'm going to choose a PowerPoint in this

1:53particular case.

1:54I'm going to keep it as a text button but

1:56if I was to select an image, I could

1:57actually

1:58go and choose an icon for the PowerPoint

2:01software if I wanted to.

2:03But I'm going to keep it as a text button

2:05for now.

2:06I can format this, give it a nice thick

2:08border, maybe a red background to go with

2:11the branding

2:12for PowerPoint.

2:13If I zoom back out and hit apply, you'll

2:17see that I get that styling applied to the

2:20button.

2:22If I hit bold on the title and if I just

2:25give this slightly more formatting and I

2:28hit apply

2:29again, you can see that I have the ability

2:32to also change the text that goes in there

2:34and also the font formatting.

2:37When I hit okay, you'll see that that

2:39button now sits there as it should do.

2:42If I briefly go to the preview option here

2:45at the top and I hit that button, you'll

2:47see

2:47here that I get the option to save this to

2:50a particular place on my computer.

2:52So if I just save this to my desktop over

2:54there, you'll see that it processes the

2:57request.

2:58Let's exit this preview and go to my

3:01desktop and what you'll see here is a

3:03PowerPoint file

3:05that it's exported.

3:06This is essentially just an image that's

3:08been put into a PowerPoint file.

3:10So you can see I haven't actually opened

3:12PowerPoint on this machine but let's start

3:14using PowerPoint

3:16and you get this title to go with it and on

3:19the second tab, you see the dashboard has

3:22been exported there.

3:24So that's a feature in a very quick

3:28overview.

3:29Now what do people who are using Tableau

3:31Server see?

3:32So let's go ahead and publish this up to

3:35Tableau Server.

3:36In this case, I'm going to use Tableau

3:38Online using a test environment on Tableau

3:41Online.

3:42So I'm going to go ahead and publish this

3:44workbook and what I will get here is a

3:46series

3:47of options as to where I'd like to publish

3:50to.

3:50I'm going to put it to my sample space that

3:53I've got on the Tableau Online instance

3:55that

3:55I use and I'm going to just call this

3:59export test.

4:01And I'm going to export pretty much all the

4:03sheets.

4:04In fact, no, I won't do that.

4:05I'll just export just the ones that I'm

4:07actually using.

4:08So I'll deselect everything but the

4:11overview and then I hit publish.

4:14What this will do is once this is published

4:17, it will automatically open up Chrome or

4:20your

4:20browser and it will open up the workbook

4:23ready to go.

4:24Now if you're not logged in, it will log

4:26you in but you can see here it's

4:27successfully

4:28done this and you can see here this is my

4:31overview dashboard and if I click on that

4:33dashboard, you'll see here my fetching

4:36export button is also present.

4:39And so if I actually click export here,

4:41what I'll get if I'm on Tableau Server is

4:44this

4:44option.

4:45Now notice it's much, much more minimalized

4:47.

4:47So I get a few more options that I didn't

4:49get when I was using it on the dashboard.

4:51I can use specific sheets from this

4:53dashboard or I can choose specific sheets

4:56from this

4:56workbook if that sort of helps.

4:59And so I get this little preview of what's

5:01available to me as a user because I didn't

5:03take anything else.

5:04I don't actually get to see that but if I

5:06select sheet, it gives me each of the

5:08sheets

5:09available in this dashboard.

5:11So I can actually select each and every one

5:13of them, hit download and then what will

5:15happen

5:15once that is ready is it will download it

5:17for you.

5:18Here you can see my download options loads

5:20that up and it will name it the name of the

5:23workbook and you can see here each

5:25individual chart has been given its own

5:27spacing in a

5:28PowerPoint file.

5:30And so that's the new feature in Tableau

5:322020.1.

5:33I hope you find it useful.

5:35I think some of the most frequent uses for

5:38this will be Excel and PowerPoint but I

5:40also

5:41encourage people to try and get users to

5:44use the native capability they get by

5:47interacting

5:48with a visualization as I am here where I

5:51get a little bit more sort of flexibility

5:54with what I'm doing and even this sort of

5:55interactivity that you get here with charts

5:57and tool tips in Tableau.

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