Add chart/map titles (if you wish), shorten and clarify axis labels, and simplify tooltips (Figure 9.8). The last step before adding our visualizations to a dashboard is to clean up their design. Your color schemes (map and graph) should be equivalent, as we are only going to create one legend for our dashboard. Edit your color scheme so that it matches the one from your map. Once we've created a graph, it's time to add color! Drag the same data measure from the sidebar to the Color box in the Marks section to color your bars according to that data-as the length of the bar already represents this value, adding color here is called dual encoding. You can change how your measures are calculated by clicking on the colored green oval "pill" of the measure you want to change. If you had an Excel file with multiple rows for each state, Tableau would sum those values and display that calculated value - you may, in that case, want to display the average in each state instead. Since in our data we have only one value per state, the sum is equivalent to the original value. You may notice that when you add your measure (here, % female 85+) to a graph/chart/map in Tableau, the default measurement is SUM (see Figure 9.7). You may choose to map another geography (e.g., counties, census tracts, block groups) for your own Lab, but using one of these geographies is more advanced and will not be covered here.
The most important component of this Excel sheet is the State column-Tableau will automatically recognize and map several geographies, such as States, Countries, Zipcodes, and Coordinates (lat/long). If you're not sure what data to use for your own project, the ACS is a good place to start. It was created by making minor edits to a CSV file downloaded from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). This file has multiple fields (columns) of data for each state in the United States. To begin, open the Age_andSex_AFF_ACS_2017 Excel file. The final result will be a Tableau Story similar to the one about Airbnb data in Portland we discussed in Lesson 9. In this lab, we will design an interactive geovisualization with Tableau.
If you haven’t already upgraded to Tableau 9.2, download it now to take advantage of this new time saving feature.In Part 1, follow these steps to create the example, Tableau Story. While I have demonstrated this with refugee data, this structure exists everywhere people use Excel to organize data. It does the work of splitting up parts of the spreadsheet so we don’t have to. Before, we would have had to cut and paste each sub table into different sheets. I was glad to see that Tableau allows users to pivot fields in the sub tables the same as other kinds of data tables. In the bottom section, I found it useful to pivot the fields to visually analyze the ways different organizations are helping. This option exports and Excel file that color-codes how the Data Interpreter handled each part. Another more detailed way, is to use the Review Results button, especially when Tableau warns that it removed some data. One way is to preview each one using the data grid to quickly check the fields it found. It is a good idea to verify that Tableau correctly interpreted the structure.
As we can see, this is not a data structure that Tableau could automatically recognize in prior versions. These sections are highlighted in the screenshots below. For an overview of some other great new features found in Tableau 9.2, be sure to check out this article from my colleague, Katie Fontenot.
This post discusses how to use the new sub table detection feature in Tableau 9.2 to automatically recognize this structure and minimize manual data manipulation. Using the Excel download option at the top results in a file with five different sections on one spreadsheet. In working on the Big Book of Dashboards with Steve Wexler and Andy Cotgreave, I had the need to have high resolution graphics for the book for two dozen dashboards and various other images. While discussions about Syrian refugees were ramping up, I sought out data about the situation, which led me to the UNHCR page dedicated to this crisis. How to Create Vector Graphics and High Resolution Images of your Tableau Visualizations. I recently found a data set that was perfect for testing out the new Data Interpreter in Tableau 9.2.