Web authoring improvements

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. And in today's video, I

0:01'm going to be showing you some of the web

0:03altering improvements in Tableau 2020.4.

0:05If you went to Tableau conference virtually

0:08this year, you will have noticed a theme

0:10appearing.

0:11Literally everything is moving to the

0:13browser.

0:13Literally, I can't count how many times

0:15they said the browser.

0:16And so here we are with some of the first

0:19set of improvements coming to the browser.

0:22Now, I'm actually in Tableau online here.

0:23And my previous video actually built this

0:25map to showcase some of the offline maps

0:29that are now available.

0:29If you're using Tableau server in

0:31restricted Internet setups, what I'm going

0:34to do is I'm going to go ahead and actually

0:35open this and edit this map.

0:37I'm actually going to use this as the basis

0:39for showing you some of these improvements.

0:41OK, let's start with the first one.

0:43OK, so we're here now.

0:45And one of the first improvements is the

0:47ability to add highlight actions in the

0:49browser.

0:49So let's go ahead and see how we do that

0:51now.

0:52In previous versions, what you typically do

0:55is you'd actually go to the state option

0:57here, for example, which is colored on the

1:00map.

1:00And you wouldn't actually have this option

1:02to show the highlighter.

1:03You can see here that it's now there.

1:05If I click show highlighter, it actually

1:07appears here on the bottom.

1:08Let me move it up to the top.

1:09I actually can't move it to the top here

1:11because it's underneath all my labels.

1:12So it's a little bit of a quality of life

1:15sort of bug there.

1:16It's right underneath my face here as well.

1:18So that's not out for there.

1:19Let me move my face out the way there.

1:21And you can see here that it's, you know, I

1:23can't move it up.

1:24So when you add these things, you just have

1:26to be careful that you're not sort of obsc

1:28uring sort of what you're trying to do.

1:30I would also go here and try and see if I

1:32could disable the labels here.

1:34I could probably go to worksheets and see

1:37if I can disable the labels.

1:40No, I don't think I can.

1:41I can't disable the labels so I can't show

1:43or hide the labels.

1:45That's a real bummer.

1:45I can hide the caption.

1:47I can enable loads of other things, but I

1:49can't hide the labels.

1:51So unfortunately, the highlight state

1:52option is going to be stuck there.

1:53When we work with a dashboard, though, I

1:55think we can actually move that.

1:56So let's go ahead to the next feature that

1:58has been improved in 2020.4 and see what

2:01that's like.

2:01The next thing is mark labels.

2:03Let me go ahead and actually just move the

2:06map here a bit to the left and let's just

2:08see how that works.

2:09OK, so if I actually hold command on the

2:12Mac or control on a PC and drag state to

2:14labels, you'll see that it actually works

2:16exactly the same as on desktop.

2:18I'm actually able to put the state on

2:20labels.

2:21Now, what you can do is you can actually

2:23now control what is labeled.

2:24So before, what I couldn't do is go down

2:27here and essentially change how this

2:29particular pill behaves.

2:30To do that, you go to the label option.

2:32And when I click on that, you get this

2:34little pop up which shows you the controls

2:36that you actually have.

2:37And I can actually choose what gets labeled

2:40.

2:40So in this case, I'll just choose

2:41highlighted.

2:42And what that will do is it'll only show

2:44the label when something is highlighted.

2:46So now if I click out of that, you'll see

2:48that it updates.

2:49Now, this is a little bit slower in the

2:50browser than on desktop.

2:52I have to be honest with you guys.

2:53And when I click on Wyoming here, you see

2:55it takes a little while and then the label

2:58eventually shows up.

2:59This is not ideal.

3:00I was hoping this would be a little bit

3:02faster and a little bit zippier.

3:03Maybe there's something in early days of

3:05development, but it does take a little bit

3:07of time.

3:07If I do select that, you see it takes a

3:09while to go away.

3:10What you can actually see there faded out

3:12is actually the underlying states coming

3:15through from the map.

3:16So that's why you can see that faded out

3:18there.

3:18But I'll click on South Dakota here.

3:20And again, that will come up a little later

3:22on.

3:22Now, if I click on Wyoming again, it should

3:24be faster because it's cached.

3:26But unfortunately, it's not.

3:27It's still a little bit slower.

3:28So that's just something to be aware of.

3:30It's not a like for like sort of speed

3:32comparison.

3:33But bearing in mind, you're getting the

3:35full power of Tableau in the browser.

3:37This isn't so bad.

3:38It's not so much of a compromise.

3:40OK, the next thing is the ability to create

3:43extracts.

3:43Let me show you how that works.

3:45OK, so let's go ahead and add an Excel file

3:47.

3:47I actually have to add an Excel file here

3:49because the data source I'm connected to

3:51came from Tableau prep.

3:52So of course, that's already an extract if

3:54you think about that sort of workflow.

3:56So what I have to do is go to connect to

3:58data, click on files, then upload from the

4:00computer.

4:01Now, what I thought was going on here is

4:03that when you actually upload a static file

4:05to the browser, I thought it was already

4:07creating an extract.

4:09But it turns out that's not what's

4:10happening.

4:10It's literally uploading the Excel file and

4:13it's connecting to the Excel file locally,

4:15which I didn't I didn't expect that to

4:16happen.

4:17It's almost keeping the original format of

4:19the file.

4:19I just thought it converted everything to

4:22an extra an extract.

4:23So you see, you get here the same interface

4:25as you got before with desktop.

4:26And now if I drag the orders in there and I

4:29'm just going to drag the orders and I'm not

4:31going to make this sort of complicated.

4:33Just click update now so I can see some

4:35sample rows.

4:35That looks good.

4:37Now, the ability to extract if I go to

4:39sheet one, you'll see that my connection is

4:41there and you can see that it's just got

4:43the normal cylinder.

4:44And this is not yet a sort of an extract.

4:48And another thing, I'm a little bit of a

4:49picky person.

4:50I've got a high definition screen here, so

4:52everything is nice and crisp.

4:54But these icons aren't high def yet.

4:56You can see these are visibly much lower

4:58quality than even the text.

5:00So little note to tableau.

5:02Let's update these nice images here to be

5:04vector files or SVG so that they can be

5:06just as sharp as the rest of the interface.

5:09But never mind.

5:10If I right click on this file, you'll see

5:12there's no option here to extract the data

5:14source.

5:15So you've got to be sort of savvy with how

5:17the features are set up in the browser.

5:19The place you actually go to set up the

5:21extract is actually in the connection

5:23window.

5:23So if you go back to the edit data source,

5:25go over to the top right hand side, you can

5:27see that in the top right is an option to

5:29extract the data source.

5:30Now, when you click that extract option,

5:33there's an option here that says create

5:34extract.

5:35And actually, if you go ahead and do that,

5:36it's going to give you a warning.

5:38Essentially, data extracts have to be que

5:40ued when you're creating them in the browser

5:42so you can create the extract.

5:44And then basically, if you go ahead and do

5:46that, there's an elapsed timer, but this

5:48goes into a queue.

5:49So you could be waiting here for some time.

5:50Hence, you get this option to notify you

5:52when it's complete.

5:54If you tick that, you can set the save

5:56location as well for the extract, and then

5:59you can close the editor.

6:01And now what this is going to do is it's

6:03going to let you know when everything is

6:05ready to go.

6:06And what will actually happen is your work

6:08book will go back to sort of the finished

6:10state.

6:10So it kind of assumes that you're done,

6:12which isn't exactly what I had in mind.

6:14I actually thought he'd go back into the

6:16edit window and you'd be able to carry on.

6:18But if you see, I go back in there now,

6:20that job has finished.

6:21And now you can see I'm actually working

6:23with an extract in the browser.

6:24So a little bit of a strange workflow.

6:27In all honesty, I think what I would have

6:29preferred here is if you tick the extract

6:31option and you don't click the create

6:33extract option,

6:34you can then just go into sheet one and it

6:35triggers the extract in the background.

6:37So because I've already done this, I can't

6:39show you this flow, but that's the better

6:41thing to do.

6:42Tick the extract option, carry on working

6:44as you are.

6:44And eventually the extract gets queued in

6:46the background and it will automatically

6:48come through when it's ready to go.

6:50But if I go into sheet one, you can see

6:51here that now I'm back to an extract and

6:53everything is great.

6:55If I right click on this file, you'll see

6:57that I obviously don't have the option to

6:59remove the extract.

7:00If I want to do that, I have to go back to

7:02edit source and go back to the live

7:03connection.

7:04OK, so it even gives you the last time the

7:07extract was updated.

7:08So this is kind of handy to have.

7:11And it's good to be aware that this exists.

7:13Now, if I go back into sheet one, I'm going

7:15to be able to show you the next flow,

7:16which is the ability to apply filters to

7:18worksheets from a dashboard.

7:20OK, in order to show you this, I have to

7:22build another view.

7:23So let's go ahead and build a very basic

7:25bar chart.

7:26I'm just going to take subcategory into

7:28rows and then sales into columns.

7:31I always build this the wrong way.

7:32You're not supposed to build and have ABC

7:34showing in the view Tim.

7:36Come on. But nevertheless, I'll sort this

7:39in order of sales and then we'll go ahead

7:41to the dashboard.

7:42So here we are in the dashboard sheet one

7:44and two.

7:45I'm so lazy with naming.

7:46I'm not going to bother with that.

7:47It's going to drag in sheet two to the

7:49bottom here.

7:50So now we have two sheets.

7:52Now, if I go back into sheet two, what I

7:54want to do is actually add in a filter.

7:56In this case, I'm going to add in a segment

7:58filter because I'm actually going to call

8:00up this filter on the dashboard.

8:01For now, I'll just click all click.

8:03OK, go to the dashboard.

8:05And now that we're in the dashboard,

8:06remember earlier on, I was complaining

8:08about this legend.

8:09I can actually get rid of it here because I

8:11'm actually using a dashboard so I can

8:13actually control what's in the dashboard.

8:16Now you can see my highlight action here

8:17works.

8:18I can highlight different things.

8:19And this is great.

8:20I can highlight the map that's doing

8:22exactly what I wanted to do.

8:23But now if I bring in the filter from this

8:25sheet, if I just go to this dropdown and I

8:28hover over filters, you'll see that the

8:30segment filter is now there.

8:31So if I bring that in, you can see that

8:33that now shows.

8:34Now, if I deselect items, you'll see that

8:36the bottom chart changes.

8:38But what I'd like to do is apply it to the

8:40top one.

8:40So let's hit all here.

8:42Let's go to the dropdown filter and check

8:43this out.

8:44This is actually something great to see.

8:46This whole menu looks familiar.

8:48It's exactly the same as Tableau Desktop.

8:50And you've even got the ability to apply it

8:52to selected worksheets.

8:53This actually makes dashboarding a real

8:56prospect in the browser because I can now

8:58choose exactly which sheet I want to target

9:00with my filter.

9:01Click OK.

9:02And now this filter is controlling both of

9:04them.

9:04So before you'd have to use the sheet as

9:06the filter, you'd have to sort of think

9:08creatively.

9:09But now you can do that all in the browser

9:10and everything works really, really well.

9:13I think it's a really great improvement to

9:15have in the browser.

9:17The last one to show you is actually the

9:18ability to create fixed sets.

9:20Now, if I just go into this map here, what

9:23you couldn't do before is essentially

9:25create a bunch of circle, a bunch of items

9:27here.

9:27So if I just go to the circle tool here, I

9:31'm just going to draw a circle and I'm going

9:33to select a bunch of states.

9:34You can see there that they're selected.

9:36And when I do that, if I hover over any one

9:38of them, I get that pop up window, the

9:40context menu that I'm familiar with in

9:42Tableau.

9:42And one of the options there now is to

9:45create a set.

9:46Now, when you do this, it creates a set,

9:48but there's no sort of big signal other

9:50than the fact that on the left hand side,

9:52you can see that it's now highlighting the

9:54state set.

9:55So it's actually creating the set and it's

9:57right there.

9:58But you can't edit the set.

10:00So if you've got an issue, you've got to

10:02delete the set and recreate it.

10:04The other thing you can do is you can, of

10:06course, select another group of states and

10:09do the same thing again.

10:10All it's doing isn't naming them, it's

10:12going to start naming them in sequential

10:14order.

10:14But I can also add it to the set if I can

10:17also add it to the previous set that I

10:20created.

10:21So this is a really sort of nice little

10:23hack.

10:23There's probably no obvious way that when

10:25you when you look at the item here, you

10:27probably want to edit it here.

10:28But actually, the hack is to just go back

10:30into the view, select what you're trying to

10:32select.

10:33In this case, I think I'm actually somehow

10:35selecting the whole map here.

10:36And if I do that and I go click on the

10:38option, I can now remove from set or add to

10:41the set that I'd already created or even

10:43create a new set.

10:45If I create a set, it names it state set

10:47two.

10:48And of course, I can actually now start ren

10:51aming those to make more sense if it's

10:53necessary.

10:54So there we have it.

10:55It's a really sort of nice quality of life

10:57improvement.

10:58These are big hitters.

10:59I mean, these sounds like small features,

11:00but these are some of the big features that

11:03stop power users from actually using the

11:05browser.

11:05And in some cases, even fixing workbooks in

11:08the browser, essentially, I've used WebEdit

11:11to fix workbooks on the fly.

11:12And now actually with some of these

11:14features, I can go in and fix some of those

11:16pesky filtering issues where maybe a filter

11:18has been mistakenly applied to something.

11:20I can actually go into browser and actually

11:23fix those on the go, which is great, even

11:25on an iPad, which which is might be what I

11:27have while I'm while I'm mobile.

11:29So that's pretty much it.

11:30That's the those are all the features in a

11:32nutshell.

11:33And if you enjoyed this video, you know

11:34what to do and hit the like button,

11:36subscribe, share the video with other

11:37people that might find it useful.

11:39If you haven't done, hit the dislike button

11:41twice and I'll catch you in the next video.

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