# One of my favourite small features in Tableau: Describe sheets and fields: Quick tip

> 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:** 2021-08-18
- **Format:** Video · 6 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Productivity
- **Tools:** Tableau (calculated fields, describe)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/one-of-my-favourite-small-features-in-tableau-describe-sheets-and-fields-quick-tip
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLA88KS8z3w

I walk through Tableau's Describe feature, showing how it works in three contexts: describing an entire sheet, describing individual fields in the data pane, and describing calculated fields. I cover the keyboard shortcuts and explain how I've used it for documentation and for understanding how a workbook is built.

## Key takeaways

- Select a sheet and press Command/Ctrl+E (or use Worksheet > Describe Sheet) to get an automatic plain-language breakdown of what's on rows, columns, filters, colour and detail, including how each filter is configured
- The describe output is a quick way to learn Tableau by reinforcing the contextual memory of what sits on each shelf and what each calculation does
- Right-click any field in the data pane and choose Describe to see its data type, details and the top ~20 member values without loading the whole field, using the load button to fetch values for calculations
- Describe also works inside a calculated field, giving you the same breakdown in the context of the calculation
- You can copy describe outputs straight into a Word document alongside screenshots as a fast way to document a workbook

## Chapters

- 0:09 Describing a whole sheet
- 2:23 Using describe for documentation
- 3:26 Describing fields in the data pane
- 5:03 Describing calculated fields

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/one-of-my-favourite-small-features-in-tableau-describe-sheets-and-fields-quick-tip

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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