Can You Share a Tableau Workbook with Others?

Creating an insightful dashboard in Tableau is a great first step, but its real value comes when you share it with your team, stakeholders, or clients. This article will show you the different ways to share your Tableau workbooks, covering everything from secure, interactive dashboards to simple static images, so you can choose the right method for your audience and your data.

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Before You Share: A Few Key Considerations

There isn't a single "best" way to share a Tableau workbook. The ideal method depends on your specific situation. Before choosing a sharing option, take a moment to answer these questions:

• Who is your audience? Are you sharing with a teammate who has Tableau Desktop and needs to make edits? Or are you sending a report to an executive who just needs to see the key performance indicators (KPIs) quickly? Knowing your audience's technical skills and needs is critical.
• How do they need to interact with the data? Do your users need to filter dashboards, drill down into details, and explore the data on their own? Or is a static, read-only view sufficient? Interactivity is one of Tableau's biggest strengths, but it's not always necessary.
• How sensitive is your data? Sharing a workbook with confidential sales numbers requires a much more secure method than sharing a visualization of public marketing data. Security should always be a top priority.
• Does the data need to be live? Do your viewers need to see the most up-to-the-minute information from a live database, or is a snapshot from yesterday or last week perfectly fine?

Answering these questions first will help you navigate the options below and pick the perfect sharing strategy for your needs.

Method 1: Publish to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud

For businesses and teams, Tableau Server (self-hosted) and Tableau Cloud (Tableau-hosted) are the gold standards for sharing. They are centralized, secure platforms designed for collaboration, allowing you to publish, share, and manage all your team's dashboards in one place.

Best for: Secure, internal sharing with colleagues and clients who need access to interactive, up-to-date dashboards.

How it Works

Publishing shares a copy of your workbook to a web-based environment. Users don't need Tableau Desktop to view or interact with it, they just need a web browser and the proper permissions.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

1. With your workbook open in Tableau Desktop, navigate to the Server menu at the top of the screen.
2. Select Publish Workbook...
3. If you aren't already signed in, a dialog box will appear asking you to connect to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud. Enter your credentials.
4. In the Publish Workbook dialog, you'll configure several options:
5. Once you've configured the settings, click Publish.

After publishing, you can share a simple link with your audience. When they click it, they'll see the workbook in their web browser, complete with all the interactive features you designed.

Pros & Cons

• Pros: Highly secure, centralized access, allows for live data or scheduled refreshes, viewers only need a web browser, supports subscriptions and alerts.
• Cons: Requires a paid license for Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, which can be a significant investment. Publishing users require a Creator license, and viewers typically need a Viewer license.

Method 2: Email a Packaged Workbook (.twbx)

If you're looking for a simpler way to share a complete, self-contained workbook, the Packaged Workbook format (.twbx) is an excellent choice. This file format bundles your workbook visuals (.twb) with a local copy of your data file (like a CSV or Excel extract), as well as any custom images or geocoding.

Best for: Sharing a specific, point-in-time snapshot with another Tableau Desktop user or someone who can install the free Tableau Reader.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. In Tableau Desktop, with your finished workbook open, go to File > Save As...
2. In the Save As window, click the "Save as type" dropdown menu at the bottom.
3. Select Tableau Packaged Workbook (*.twbx) from the list.
4. Name your file and save it to your computer.

You now have a single .twbx file that you can attach to an email or share via a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive. However, the recipient will need appropriate software to open it - either a licensed copy of Tableau Desktop or the free Tableau Reader application.

Pros & Cons

• Pros: Simple and self-contained, no server needed, good for offline access, allows for full interactivity for the recipient.
• Cons: The data is static and will not update. You're sending a physical copy of the data, which can be a security risk if the information is sensitive. Files can become large.

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Method 3: Share with the Free Tableau Reader

What if your audience doesn't have a paid Tableau license? Tableau Reader is a free desktop application that anyone can download and install. It allows them to open and interact with Tableau workbooks, but not edit them.

Best for: Distributing interactive, yet uneditable, dashboards to a broad audience without requiring them to have a Tableau license.

The Workflow:

1. As the creator, you follow the steps in Method 2 to create and save a Packaged Workbook (.twbx).
2. You send that .twbx file to your recipient.
3. The recipient first needs to download and install Tableau Reader from the official Tableau website.
4. Once installed, they can simply double-click the .twbx file you sent them. The workbook will open in Tableau Reader.

In Tableau Reader, the user can use filters, click on parts of a chart to highlight others, view tooltips, and browse through different sheets and dashboards. They get nearly the full viewing experience, but they cannot save any changes, edit calculations, or connect to different data sources.

Pros & Cons

• Pros: Free for the viewer, maintains dashboard interactivity, excellent alternative to publishing static PDFs.
• Cons: The viewer must install software. Data is static. Presents the same security concerns as sending any other .twbx file containing sensitive data.

Method 4: Export to Static Files (Image, PDF, PowerPoint)

Sometimes, all you need is a picture of your dashboard. If your audience doesn't need to interact with the data, exporting your view to a static format like an image, PDF, or PowerPoint slide is the quickest and easiest sharing option available.

Best for: Dropping a chart into a presentation, sending a quick high-level overview via email, or including a visualization in a written report.

Step-by-Step Instructions

• For an Image: Go to Worksheet > Export > Image.... You can choose the file format (PNG, JPEG, etc.) and layout options.
• For a PDF: Go to File > Print to PDF.... This option gives you excellent control over the output, letting you select which sheets to include, the paper size, and orientation.
• For PowerPoint: Go to File > Export as PowerPoint.... Tableau will create a new PowerPoint presentation with an image of your dashboards placed on the slides. It also includes a link back to the workbook on Tableau Server/Cloud if it has been published.
• For a Crosstab (Excel): Go to Worksheet > Export > Crosstab to Excel to export the underlying summary data as a simple table in a .xlsx file.

Pros & Cons

• Pros: Universal formats that everyone can open, very fast and easy, great for presentations and reports.
• Cons: No interactivity at all, becomes outdated as soon as the source data changes, loses a great deal of the analytical depth Tableau provides.

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Method 5: Share Publicly with Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a free platform for creating and sharing interactive data visualizations on the web. It's an excellent resource for journalists, students, bloggers, and analysts looking to build a professional portfolio of their work.

Best for: Sharing non-sensitive data visualizations with the world online, embedding vizzes in a public blog or website.

Crucial Security Warning: Be extremely careful with this option. Any workbook and data you save to Tableau Public is, as the name implies, publicly accessible. Anyone can view and download your data. Never use Tableau Public for confidential or proprietary company information.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Navigate to the Server menu.
2. Hover over Tableau Public.
3. Select Save to Tableau Public As...
4. You'll be prompted to sign in to your Tableau Public account (you can create one for free). Name your viz, and it will be uploaded to your public-facing profile.

Pros & Cons

• Pros: Completely free for both creator and viewers, allows for interactive vizzes to be embedded anywhere on the web, helps build a public portfolio.
• Cons: Terribly insecure for private data, comes with data limitations (e.g., a 15-million-row limit).

Final Thoughts

You can see there are numerous ways to share your work from Tableau, each with its own advantages. Whether you need the security of Tableau Server for your organization, the portability of a packaged workbook, or the simplicity of a static image, the right tool is available. The key is matching the sharing method to your audience's needs and the sensitivity of your data.

Here at Graphed, we aim to make the entire process of data analysis and sharing feel more intuitive. Our goal is to move you beyond the complexities of different file formats and software licenses. We enable you to connect your data sources in seconds, then create dashboards and reports simply by asking for what you want in plain English. Sharing is as simple as sending a secure link, so your team always has real-time insights without the friction.