How to Publish a Tableau Dashboard

You’ve spent hours cleaning data, crafting calculations, and arranging visuals to create the perfect Tableau dashboard. Now comes the most important part: sharing it so others can use your insights. Publishing is the final step that turns your local analysis into a valuable asset for your team or the public.

This tutorial will guide you through the process of publishing a Tableau dashboard. We’ll cover the main publishing options, provide step-by-step instructions for each, and share some best practices to ensure your dashboards make an impact.

Before You Publish: A Quick Checklist

Before you hit the publish button, a quick review can make a world of difference for your end-users. Running through this checklist helps ensure your dashboard is not only accurate but also easy to understand and use.

• Clean Up Your Workbook: Hide any unused sheets, delete unnecessary calculations, and give everything clean, descriptive names. A tidy backend makes future updates much easier.
• Optimize Your Tooltips: Tooltips are the small windows that pop up when you hover over a mark in a chart. Customize them to provide useful context or additional details. Instead of a generic list of fields, write a clear, concise sentence like, "Sales in [Region] were [SUM(Sales)] for Q[QUARTER(Order Date)]".
• Check Your Formatting: Ensure titles, axes, legends, and colors are consistent and clear. Does the dashboard look good? Can someone quickly understand the key takeaways without needing a manual? Test it on a colleague who hasn't seen it before.
• Consider Data Source Connection: Are you using a live connection or a data extract (.hyper file)?
• Think About Permissions: Who needs to see this dashboard? Who should be allowed to edit it or download the underlying data? Thinking about this ahead of time will save you from having to adjust settings later.

Understanding Your Publishing Options

Tableau offers three primary environments where you can publish and share your dashboards. The one you choose depends on your organization’s needs, budget, and infrastructure.

1. Tableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online)

Tableau Cloud is a fully hosted, cloud-based solution managed by Tableau (a Salesforce company). You and your team can access it from anywhere through a web browser or mobile app. It's an excellent choice for businesses that want the power of Tableau Server without the responsibility of managing the hardware, updates, and security yourself.

• Best for: Teams and businesses that want a fast setup, no infrastructure maintenance, and scalable analytics accessible from anywhere.

2. Tableau Server

Tableau Server is a self-hosted solution. You install and manage it on your own infrastructure, whether that's on your own on-premise servers or in your private cloud (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud). This gives you complete control over your data environment, security protocols, and hardware performance.

• Best for: Larger enterprises or organizations with strict data governance policies, compliance requirements, or the need for deep customization over their analytics environment.

3. Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a free platform for sharing interactive data visualizations publicly. It’s an amazing resource for data enthusiasts, students, and professionals to build a portfolio and share their work with the world. The main catch? Any data and workbook you publish to Tableau Public is accessible to everyone. Never use it for private or sensitive company data.

• Best for: Personal projects, professional portfolios, tutorials, and data journalism.

How to Publish to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server (Step-by-Step)

The process for publishing to Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server from Tableau Desktop is nearly identical. You’ll just need to know the correct server address to use.

Step 1: Sign in to Your Server from Tableau Desktop

First, you need to connect your Tableau Desktop application to your organization's Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud site.

1. On the top menu, go to Server > Sign In.
2. A dialog box will appear. If you're using Tableau Cloud, click the "Tableau Cloud" link. If you're using Tableau Server, enter your server's URL (e.g., https://tableau.mycompany.com) and click "Connect."
3. You'll then be prompted to enter your username and password to log in.

Step 2: Open the Publish Workbook Dialog

Once you are signed in and have your dashboard ready, navigate to the top menu and select Server > Publish Workbook...

This will open a dialog box with several configuration options.

Step 3: Configure Publishing Options

This is where you define how your dashboard will be saved and who can interact with it. Let’s break down the key settings:

• Project: Projects are like folders on Tableau Server/Cloud. Choose the project where you want to store your workbook. Keeping dashboards organized in a logical project structure is a best practice.
• Name: Give your workbook a clear, descriptive name. This is what users will see when browsing the server. Avoid generic names like "Dashboard 1." Instead, use "Quarterly Sales Performance - Q3 2023."
• Description: Add a brief description and tags. This helps users understand the purpose of a dashboard and makes it searchable.
• Sheets: By default, Tableau wants to publish all sheets in your workbook. You can click 'Edit' to select only the specific dashboards and worksheets you want to share. It's best to only publish the final, polished dashboards and hide any rough "work in progress" sheets.
• Permissions: Click 'Edit' to set permissions. This is critical for controlling data access. You can set permissions for individual users or for groups. You can control who can view, edit, download the full workbook, download data, and more. It’s often best to set permissions at the Project level first, then adjust for individual workbooks if needed.
• Data Sources: This is a key setting.

You also need to manage how the connection handles authentication. You may be given the choice to Embed password (which makes it seamless for viewers but less secure) or Prompt user (which requires each viewer to enter their own database credentials).

• More Options:

Step 4: Click Publish

Once you have configured everything, click the "Publish" button. Tableau will upload your workbook and its data source to the server. When it’s finished, your default web browser will open, displaying your newly published dashboard.

How to Publish to Tableau Public (Step-by-Step)

Sharing your work on Tableau Public is an even more straightforward process, designed to get your visualizations out to the world quickly.

Remember: Do not publish any confidential information to Tableau Public. Everything is visible to anyone on the internet.

Step 1: Sign in to Tableau Public

From Tableau Desktop, navigate to Server > Tableau Public > Save to Tableau Public.... You'll be prompted to sign in with your Tableau Public account details. If you don't have an account, you can create one for free.

Step 2: Give Your Workbook a Title

The dialog box for Tableau Public is much simpler than the one for Server or Cloud.

Simply give your workbook a title. Tableau will then automatically save the workbook to your public profile.

Step 3: Edit Details on Your Profile

After being published, your workbook will open in your web browser. From here, you can click on "Edit Details" to change the title, add a description, and customize the link. You will also see a "Share" button at the bottom of your visualization, which provides a direct link and an embed code you can use to add your interactive dashboard to a blog or website.

Best Practices After Publishing

Publishing isn’t the end of the line. Managing and promoting your dashboard ensures it remains relevant and useful.

• Schedule Data Refreshes: If your published dashboard uses a data extract, you need to set up a refresh schedule on Tableau Server or Cloud. This will automatically update your data on a cadence you choose (e.g., every morning at 6 AM) so you don't have to republish the workbook manually every day.
• Provide context: Don't just send a link! When you share your new dashboard with your team, explain what it shows, how to use its filters and interactive elements, and who to contact with questions. Consider recording a short walkthrough video.
• Get Feedback: The first version of a dashboard is rarely the last. Encourage your users to provide feedback. Are there filters they need that are missing? Is a chart confusing? Make iterative improvements based on what they tell you.
• Update Your Workbook: To make changes to a published dashboard, open the original .twb or .twbx file on your computer, make your edits, and then go through the Server > Publish Workbook... process again. When you select the same project and name, Tableau will ask if you want to overwrite the existing workbook. Click 'Yes'.

Final Thoughts

Publishing a dashboard moves your hard work from an isolated file on your desktop into a shared, accessible resource that can inform business decisions. By choosing the right platform - Tableau Cloud, Server, or Public - and carefully configuring your settings, you can ensure your data insights reach the right audience, securely and efficiently.

Tools like Tableau are powerful, but they often come with a significant learning curve just to build and publish a single report. We know how much time gets lost manually creating reports and wrestling with complex dashboards. That's why we built a tool that handles the hard parts for you. With Graphed, you simply connect your marketing and sales data sources one time, then use plain English to generate live, interactive dashboards in a matter of seconds. Instead of a long publishing process, you can create a report on demand and get back to making data-driven decisions that actually grow your business.