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Tableau | Data prep | Tool strategy | Industry trends

Tableau Prep in the Apple VisionPro

For the first time Tableau Prep is in my office, tangible and life-sized, and I can literally walk around my flow.

Tim Ngwena •21 August 2024 •1 min read •7 min watch •758

Part ofTableau Prep Builder tutorial Jan-2020

Watch on YouTube

The Vision Pro's single-finger pinch acts as a click and a two-handed pinch zooms in for very sharp text, picked up intuitively without instructions
Running Tableau Prep in the headset makes the flow feel physically present and far larger than a 4K monitor, so you can walk up to and around individual steps
Dragging fields in Tableau Prep can be buggy in the Vision Pro browser, often selecting and scrolling at once; refreshing the page recontextualises the session
For the pivot tool, tapping a field then dragging it into the box works more reliably than dragging directly
Prep runs fast in the Vision Pro browser, and steps like cleaning, reordering columns, pivots, generated rows and unions all build successfully

0:03Okay, we're here.

0:04We're in the Tableau website.

0:05I'm on the Vision Pro.

0:06It's in my room

0:07I'm just going to do a quick demo of the Vision Pro just so that you can get a context of the interactions I have access to.

0:14The main one is this pinch gesture here.

0:16you can see that I'm doing it in front of your screen.

0:19Generally I don't have to do it in front of my face for it to pick it up.

0:22I'm doing it here so you can see that gesture more clearly but I can sort of use it on my lap and the you know vision pro still picks it up as you can see here

0:31Another gesture I have access to is sort of two two-handed pinch, so if I can do this to sort of make things larger, and you can get right up close.

0:38This is great for text.

0:39You can get something really, really sharp, especially on the page

0:43But that is sort of the two gestures I have access to.

0:47If I tap that is essentially the same as a click.

0:49So if I go to the Y Tableau option here at the top.

0:51and hit tap you see the drop down menu comes up so this is a really really intuitive interface and I picked this up without reading any instructions it just works

1:00And it's really, really fast.

1:02I can't I can't explain to anyone who hasn't tried the Vision Pro how good that experience is.

1:08It's just

1:09It just works.

1:09It's you know your hands become a very natural input to what you're seeing.

1:13And the other thing is that this is in your space.

1:15We're in my office at the moment.

1:17This is this is just the Tableau website in sort of in 3D and you know the Vision Pro does some really cool things like it puts a shadow on the floor right there.

1:25So um these are all really sort of interesting points of context but

1:30Let's look at Tableau Prep.

1:32That's the first thing I'm going to look at because you know I build prep flows a lot and that's something I'd like to see in this product.

1:38So let's go ahead and see

1:39I have my Tableau Cloud instance, we'll go to New, we'll go to Flow, and we'll load up the Tableau Prep instance and uh boom, we have Tableau Prep in my office.

1:49Now just for context

1:51This is a real representation of how large it is in my room and if I turn to my right you can see how small the 4K screen I'd normally use is compared to what I've just set up

2:02And so what this actually does is it makes the product feel like it's in your room.

2:06For the first time, Tableau Prep is in my office, unlike being on a screen, and it's tangible.

2:11I can actually go up really close to it.

2:14I can

2:14I can sort of stand up, grab my battery here.

2:16I can stand up and go and look at different parts of my flows.

2:20There's like a physicality to this that you just don't get.

2:24with any other sort of thing and you know my desk is there and I can even walk through it and then come back and it's still right there

2:32Um and so I just I just like this this continues to blow my mind.

2:37Um and it gets old very, very, very quickly.

2:40So um we'll just sort of keep focused on the demo.

2:43If I go ahead connect to the data, I'll just tap in front of the screen so you can see this.

2:46Tableau server will load up the data sources that I have on this.

2:50We'll go for the Tableau Pulse demo dataset.

2:53I hit connect.

2:54I've set this data set to update every single day.

2:57There's sort of a good sort of time lag in it that just works for Tableau Pass for at least the next two years.

3:02So that should be good.

3:03And you can see it's loaded up nicely.

3:05I can go ahead and tap the clean one step that will come in and we're pretty much here.

3:11Now this is where I have found some issues.

3:13If I start to try and interact with Tableau Prep the way I would, there are a few bugs and I think this is less to do with Tableau Pulse and more to do with the Vision Pro.

3:21A good example, if I try and uh drag the order ID number one, you can see it's being a bit slow, it's not working, but it did pick it out, it did highlight it.

3:29So if I try it again, um you can see it's just it's just being a bit buggy.

3:33So what I'll do is I'll just refresh the page.

3:36just to sort of give the browser sort of uh a chance to recontextualize itself.

3:47Okay, here we go.

3:48Uh there it is.

3:50I was worried, I was worried, I was wondering whether it was gonna come back or forget the whole session.

3:54So we've loaded up clean one again.

3:56This time I'll actually wait for the data to load.

3:58There you go

3:59And if I sort of try and grab it, you'll see it does this thing where it both selects it and uh starts to scroll that window.

4:05That's not what I want to do.

4:06But if I go down here and I try and scroll this, this works absolutely fine

4:10I can go across and diagonal at the same time, I can go up and down, I can literally draw with this.

4:15So it's a much more fluid uh experience in some respects, but it's uh a worse experience in other respects.

4:21So here it has successfully allowed me just to pick.

4:24uh the columns so now I can move this around like you can do in in in in tablet prep this is a new feature actually of a uh a a release about uh just a year and a half ago reordering columns it's really really cool

4:35If I go to the plus icon I can go ahead and add a pivot and the pivot tool is just another experience essentially.

4:41I found this works well if you tap the item then drag it in.

4:45So we can tap country then drag it in and there you go we should have I didn't didn't drag that in quite properly I think I need to drop it in the box you can see that works there perfect

4:55So it's doing the pivot, pivot values, pivot names, and I can go ahead and scroll that.

5:00I can flip between these different perspectives.

5:02And the thing is, because this is the browser and the Vision Pro is quite powerful, this is working

5:07really really fast in the browser and tablet prep is sort of keeping up and again you know I can just just sort of reiterate this I can get up

5:15I can actually go and look at the individual segments.

5:18If this was like in a a bigger office, I could actually walk around my flay.

5:22That's such a bizarre thing to be able to say.

5:24I'll make sure that I actually sit down uh properly here and

5:28The final thing I'll do is I'll try and show you sort of a canvas interaction.

5:32So to do this I want to hit another uh clean uh I don't want to do that.

5:37Um fine, we'll do this and we'll go select a field, we'll say uh days to shift.

5:44Um here I can actually search and then uh

5:47specify your value increment.

5:49We'll just do that.

5:50I don't need that.

5:52And that will do.

5:53I just wanted to generate some new rows and then what we'll do is we have new rows one pivot one.

5:58So what I want to try and do is see if I can do this.

6:00And you can see this works well, but it doesn't always work as easily as that.

6:04So here we're unioning two datasets.

6:07And you can see that that's sort of really nicely been done by the product.

6:10And we can kind of even zoom in and again you can go up and take a look at it.

6:15So that is Tableau Prep in the Vision Pro.

6:18I've just really compressed

6:20The first few sort of experiences I've had with this, I've had the Vision Pro for about three weeks.

6:25I've used Tableau init for about a week in some small use cases and it's been really really good

6:31So yeah, that's the first experience.

6:33If you've got any questions you'd like me to answer in more detail, let me know in the comments below.

6:38I will be doing a more detailed video on all of the Tableau experience inside of the Vision Process.

6:43far I'll just be looking at existing products I won't be looking at anything else because um for now I think you know the Vision Pro is a pretty rare product it it's it's you know I can't recommend anyone you know buy one if that makes sense because there's not much to do in it

6:57But I'm using it for work and I'm using it for development.

6:59So it's um something that I know I'm gonna use a lot.

7:02So let me know any questions you'd like to know about the Tableau experience in the Vision Pro.

7:06And yeah, I'll try and get to them when I make a more full-on video about Tableau in the Vision Pro.

Rollup

Tim tries Tableau Prep running in a browser inside the Apple Vision Pro, to see whether the headset's spatial, gesture-based interface is actually usable for real analytics work rather than just a novelty.

Tim has had the Vision Pro for about three weeks and has used Tableau in it for about a week. He connects Tableau Cloud to a demo dataset and builds a simple Prep flow live in the headset.

The Breakdown

Learn the two core gestures first 0:03

A single-finger pinch works as a click, and it doesn't need to be done in front of your face - it can be done at your lap and the headset still picks it up. A two-handed pinch zooms in, which is especially good for making small text sharp and readable.
Interface is intuitive without instructions 0:44

Tapping a menu item behaves exactly like a mouse click, and Tim picked up the whole interaction model without reading any documentation - your hands become a natural input device almost immediately.
Launch Prep and feel the scale difference 1:26

Opening Tableau Prep in the headset places the flow in your actual room at a size far larger than a normal monitor - you can compare it directly against a 4K screen to see how much bigger and more physically present it feels.
Walk around and approach your flow physically 2:02

Because the canvas exists in your space, you can stand up, walk closer to inspect a step, or move around it entirely - a form of physical interaction with a data flow that a flat screen can't offer.
Expect dragging bugs; refresh to reset the session 3:02

Dragging fields (like reordering a column) is often slow or buggy in the browser and can simultaneously select and scroll the window instead of doing what you intended. Refreshing the page recontextualises the browser session and can resolve this without losing your flow.
For pivots, tap-then-drag beats direct dragging 4:35

When building a pivot step, tapping a field first and then dragging it into the target box works far more reliably than trying to drag it there directly - worth doing this way specifically for pivot fields given the dragging bugs elsewhere.
Core Prep steps run fast and successfully 5:23

Despite the interaction quirks, cleaning, reordering columns, generating new rows, pivoting and unioning two datasets all execute quickly and correctly in the browser, with the headset's power keeping Prep responsive.
Verdict after three weeks 6:20

Tim finds the Vision Pro genuinely useful for his own work and development, though he wouldn't recommend most people buy one yet given how few use cases currently exist beyond niche professional ones.

Worth Knowing

Dragging fields directly can trigger both a selection and a scroll at once, which isn't what you want - this is a known rough edge, not user error.
If the browser session breaks or feels unresponsive, refreshing the page can restore it rather than losing your flow.
This was only around a week of hands-on use with Tableau specifically, so impressions are early rather than a settled verdict.
Tim plans a more detailed follow-up video covering the wider Tableau experience in the Vision Pro.

Use It When

Worth exploring if you already own a Vision Pro and do regular Prep work, and you're curious whether spatial computing adds anything to flow-building - not a reason to buy the headset on its own yet.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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