# Offline map support for in web authoring

> 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:** 2020-12-15
- **Format:** Video · 2 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, maps, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/offline-map-support-in-web-edit
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/madGvrGTnP0

I walk through a new offline map feature in Tableau Server that lets you display maps without connecting to Tableau's mapping servers over the public internet. I demonstrate the difference between the online and offline background map options on Tableau Cloud, which is useful for restricted environments like banking.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau Server now offers an offline map option so you can show maps without connecting to Tableau's public mapping servers for tiles
- You find the setting under Map at the top, then Background Maps, where the offline map option now appears
- The offline version gives a static image of the tiles with far less control than the online version's map layers (no terrain, coastline toggles, etc.)
- This is valuable in heavily internet-restricted environments such as banking where connecting to external mapping servers is a problem
- The demo reuses a published data source built with Tableau Prep that blends spatial files to datasets

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/offline-map-support-in-web-edit

---
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