# Tableau Data stories - New in Tableau 2022.2

> 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:** 2022-06-29
- **Format:** Video · 2216 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Tool strategy, AI & ML
- **Tools:** Tableau (ai, cloud, dashboards, data stories)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-data-stories-new-in-tableau-2022-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7sGGWtZpZc

I walk through the new Data Stories feature in Tableau 2022.2, showing how it generates a written narrative from a chart inside your dashboard. I cover the setup, configuration and editing options, share my critiques around author workload and text-heavy output, and explain how the feature originated from Tableau's acquisition of Narrative Science.

## Key takeaways

- Data Stories only works on published data sources, so you may need to convert embedded sources via 'save as a published data source' and tick the option to update the workbook connections
- You build a story by dragging the Data Story object onto a dashboard, choosing a chart, selecting which dimensions and measures to use or ignore, then picking a story type
- Settings give fine-grained control over verbosity, glossary terms, number formatting (currency, aggregation), analytics thresholds and drivers, while the Edit tab lets you add custom notes and show or hide individual story sections
- The output is a separate dashboard object rather than part of the Tableau chrome, creating layout and clarity work for the author and consuming valuable dashboard real estate
- The feature originates from Tableau's 2021 acquisition of Narrative Science, and the copy button raises questions around attribution and data export that sit awkwardly with Tableau's permission model

## Chapters

- 0:16 Converting to published data sources
- 3:50 Building a story on a scatter plot
- 7:51 The dashboard object placement problem
- 10:56 Settings: narrative, formatting and drivers
- 16:41 Editing stories and adding custom notes
- 19:22 Forecast chart with analytics options
- 22:53 My critique of the feature
- 25:45 Accessibility upside
- 28:45 The end-user experience and verbosity
- 33:59 Where the feature came from

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-data-stories-new-in-tableau-2022-2

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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