How to Create a Viz in Tableau Public

Creating your first visualization in Tableau Public might feel like you're about to climb a steep mountain, but it's simpler than you think. This guide will walk you through launching the software, connecting to a simple dataset, and building an insightful chart from scratch. You'll learn the fundamental steps to turn raw numbers into a clear, interactive visual story.

What is Tableau Public (and Why Should You Care)?

Tableau is a powerful data visualization tool used by analysts and businesses worldwide. Tableau Public is its free version, designed for anyone who wants to learn and share their data stories openly on the web. It's the perfect entry point for marketers, students, entrepreneurs, or anyone curious about data visualization without the expensive software license.

So, what's the catch? The biggest difference is in the name: Public. Any workbook you save using Tableau Public is uploaded to your public online profile, visible to anyone. This makes it a fantastic tool for building a data analytics portfolio or sharing public data insights, but you should never use it for sensitive or proprietary company information.

Key Benefits for Beginners:

• It's Free: You get access to a massive amount of Tableau's core functionality without paying a cent.
• Build a Portfolio: Your Tableau Public profile acts as a living portfolio of your visualization skills, which is invaluable for career growth.
• Community and Resources: There's a huge, active community sharing visualizations, inspiration, and tutorials. You'll never be short on ideas or help.

Getting Started: Download and Install Tableau Public

First things first, you need the software. You can download the latest version of Tableau Public directly from their official website.

1. Navigate to the Tableau Public download page.
2. Enter your email address and click "Download The App."
3. Once the installer file is downloaded, open it and follow the on-screen instructions. The installation process is straightforward and typically takes just a few minutes.

Once installed, go ahead and open the application. You'll be greeted by a launch screen with a "Connect" pane on the left side. This is where your journey begins.

Preparing Your Data for Visualization

Tableau can connect to a huge variety of data sources, but for your first time, let's keep it simple with a basic spreadsheet. You can't visualize what you don't have, so we'll use a clean, practice dataset representing sales for a small online store. The golden rule is that data should be organized with columns representing your variables (like 'Category' or 'Sales') and rows representing individual records (like each order).

You can create this dataset yourself. Just open a new Excel or Google Sheet and copy the data below.

Sample Sales Data:

OrderID,OrderDate,Region,Category,ProductName,Sales,Profit
1001,2023-01-15,North,Technology,Smartphone,850,150
1002,2023-01-18,North,Office Supplies,Binders,25,5
1003,2023-02-05,South,Furniture,Bookshelf,250,45
1004,2023-02-12,East,Technology,Charger,40,-10
1005,2023-02-20,West,Office Supplies,Pens,15,4
1006,2023-03-01,West,Technology,Laptop,1200,220
1007,2023-03-03,South,Office Supplies,Paper,50,15
1008,2023-03-10,North,Technology,Headphones,150,25
1009,2023-04-21,East,Furniture,Chair,400,60
1010,2023-04-28,East,Office Supplies,Stapler,20,2
1011,2023-05-11,West,Furniture,Desk,600,90
1012,2023-05-19,South,Technology,Monitor,350,-50

Save this file on your computer as an Excel file named SampleSalesData.xlsx in a spot you can easily find.

Your First Viz: A Step-by-Step Guide

With Tableau Public open and your data ready, you're all set to create your first visualization. Our goal is to answer a simple business question: "How are our sales performing across different product categories?" A bar chart is the perfect way to show this comparison.

Step 1: Connecting to Your Data Source

Back in Tableau, look at the Connect pane on the left. This list shows you all the types of files and servers you can connect to.

1. Under "To a File," click on Microsoft Excel.
2. A file browser window will pop up. Navigate to where you saved your SampleSalesData.xlsx file, select it, and click Open.

Tableau will now load the data. You'll be taken to the "Data Source" screen, which shows a preview of your spreadsheet data. Everything looks good, so click on the orange "Sheet 1" tab at the very bottom-left of the window to go to the main worksheet where you'll build your viz.

Step 2: Understanding the Workspace

The Tableau workspace can look intimidating at first, but let's break down the most important areas:

• Data Pane (left): Here you'll see the columns from your spreadsheet, automatically sorted into two types.
• Shelves (top and center): This is where the magic happens. The main shelves are Columns and Rows. Think of them as the X and Y axes of your chart. Dragging fields here builds the structure of your visualization.
• Marks Card (center-left): This powerful card controls the visual details of your viz. You can change colors, sizes, labels, and what appears when you hover over a data point.
• Canvas (right): This large empty space is where your chart will appear as you build it.

Step 3: Building a Simple Bar Chart

Let's build that bar chart to answer our question about sales by category. This is as simple as dragging and dropping.

1. From the Data pane, find the Category dimension. Click and drag it onto the Columns shelf at the top of the workspace.
2. Next, find the Sales measure. Click and drag it onto the Rows shelf.

And just like that, a bar chart appears on your canvas! Tableau automatically recognized that you wanted to see the sum of sales for each category and drew the chart for you. You should now see three bars — one for Furniture, Office Supplies, and Technology.

Step 4: Adding Color and More Detail

This chart is a great start, but we can make it more insightful. What if we also wanted to know which categories are the most profitable?

1. Drag the Profit measure from your Data pane onto the Color tile in the Marks Card.

Immediately, your bars are colored based on their profitability. By default, Tableau uses a blue-orange gradient. High-profit categories are dark blue, and lower-profit ones are light blue or orange. We can also add sales figures directly onto the bars so we don't have to guess.

1. Drag the Sales measure from the Data pane onto the Label tile in the Marks Card. The total sales amount for each category now appears on top of or inside each bar.

Step 5: Filtering and Polishing Your Viz

Finally, let's make the chart interactive and give it a proper title. Say you want to see sales figures for just one region at a time. For that, we use a filter.

1. Find the Region dimension and drag it to the Filters shelf, located just above the Marks Card.
2. A popup window appears, asking which regions you’d like to include. For now, check the (All) box and click OK.
3. The filter is now applied, but it’s hidden. To make it usable for viewers, right-click the "Region" pill added to your Filters and select Show Filter.

A filter control box now appears on the right side of your canvas. You can check and uncheck different regions to see the sales data update in real time!

Lastly, let’s rename our chart. Double-click the title "Sheet 1" at the top of the canvas. A dialog box will open where you can type in a more descriptive title, like "Sales and Profit by Product Category". Press OK. Your polished chart is complete!

Saving and Sharing Your Masterpiece

Now that you've created a viz, it's time to save it to your Tableau Public profile.

1. Go to File > Save to Tableau Public As...
2. If you aren't already logged in, a prompt will appear asking for your Tableau Public credentials. If you don't have an account yet, you can create one for free.
3. After signing in, give your workbook a name and click Save.

Tableau will publish your visualization, and it will automatically open in a new web browser tab. From there, you can share your work and even get a piece of code to embed your interactive viz in a website or blog post.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations, you've successfully turned a simple spreadsheet into an interactive data visualization with Tableau Public. By dragging dimensions and measures onto shelves and using the Marks Card, you learned foundational skills to explore data and uncover insights. From here, you can continue experimenting with different chart types, data sources, and formatting options.

Learning tools like Tableau is an incredibly valuable skill, but incorporating your live product data from multiple sources into a clean, ready-to-analyze format is often where the process breaks down. We built Graphed to eliminate that friction. Instead of worrying about data connections, downloads, or mastering complex BI interfaces, you can instantly connect platforms like Ads and Salesforce and use simple natural language to create dashboards instantly, such as "Show me Facebook Ads campaigns that drive Shopify Sales." With Graphed, your viz is built in seconds on real-time data, letting you get straight to the insights.