Tableau Menu Commands Guide

After data source page clarifications, one should understand the menu commands in the tableau worksheet. 

As there are some menus like File, Data, Worksheet, Dashboard, Story, Analysis, Map, Format, Server, Window, Help, etc.

The basic understanding of these menus and the sub-menus in it are very much important. 

We will learn and understand the uses and the features of each and every menu command. Basically, these all menus and sub-menus consolidated are features of the tableau.

File Menu:

This is the very first menu available in tableau worksheet where we create a new worksheet or open an existing worksheet, close, save, save as, print the workbook, etc.

Paste Sheets: In Tableau, one can copy the sheets from another workbook to the current workbook.

Workbook Locale: Workbook Locale will set the dashboard language whether it is English, German, etc.

Export Packaged Workbook: This menu is used when we want to create a .twbx file which is a packaged file that can be shared with anyone.

Import Workbook: This is used when we want to open a workbook that is already shared in the form of the .twbx file.

Print to PDF: This menu will help to get the workbook or dashboard in pdf format. So, If we click on the ‘Print to PDF’ option in File then we will get my current workbook in PDF.

Data Menu

All the data-related stuff is done in the Data menu.

New data Source: This can be used to add more datasets or data files into the data section. Or if we want to add a new data connection then we can choose it from here.

Paste Data: If you want to paste some of the data points then this menu is very helpful.

Refresh All Extracts: This menu will refresh all the data from the data source.

Edit Relationships: If we want to create relationships between different data tables or data fields.

Replace Data Source: If you want to replace the current data source with a different data source.

Worksheet Menu

This menu is used for all the worksheet specific use cases.

New Worksheet: To add a new worksheet to the existing workbook.

Copy: Copy the worksheet from one workbook to another workbook.

Actions: This will create action filters in the worksheet.

Show Title, Show Caption: This will enable us to see the title and captions of the respective sheet or dashboard.

Show Summary: This will show the summary of the worksheet like some aggregations like count, etc.

Run Update: Updates the data as well as filters used.

Auto-update: Updates the data and all the filters automatically when the workbook opens.

Dashboard Menu

This menu is used for dashboards specific use cases like formatting reports, creating new dashboards, copy dashboards, etc.

Format: Format is used for formatting the dashboard like color, padding, size, etc.

Export Image: Exporting the dashboards into image format.

Show Title: This will enable the dashboard title.

Actions: If we want our dashboards to be very interactive, then we will use this option to add an action filter in dashboard visuals. Likewise, we can use a highlight filter to add more advanced filter functionality to get the data points highlighted just by hover or select the particular data or URLs that can open other dashboards.

Auto Update: Dashboard will get updated or refreshed automatically as opened.

Run Update: The data of the dashboards as well as all the filters will get updated.

Story Menu

If we want to display the story to the user and explain the insights which need to be highlighted in one-by-one in a sectional manner, then we need to create a story.

So, to create such a story one need to go to Story Menu and click on New Story.

Like the Dashboard menu, the Story menu also has the same commands as format, Copy Image, Export Image, Clear, Show Title, Show Back/Forward Buttons, Run Update.

Analysis Menu

This menu is used mostly for analyzing purposes. As there are many outstanding features like filters, aggregations, Forecast, etc.

Number formatting is done in this menu like calculating totals, sub-totals, percentage, etc. 

The most important features in this menu are:

Stack Marks: Stack marks are used when my graph includes the numeric axis. We need to just On or OFF the stack marks. This will help in stacking bars, shaking lines, etc. When the stack marks ON, then the stacks are plotted cumulatively along the axis.

Totals: If anyone want to add column total or subtotal in a tabular chart or matrix then in this menu there are some options to set these values.

Forecast: To predict the future values in reports like if we have data of sales for years 2016 and 2017, then based on the two years data tableau will predict the future sales that are sales of 2018 will be predicted using this Forecast feature.

Trend Lines: Trend lines provides the trend lines for the time series analysis.

Table Layout: The table Layout menu used to expand or restrict the number of rows and columns in tables. We can define the table structure by clicking on Analysis -> Table Layout -> Advanced. A window pops-up to specify the aspect ratio, default number format, number of row and columns, and orientation of the table.

Create Calculated Field: This command will create a new calculated field which in turn created a new data field (dimension or measure) in the data pane.

Swap Rows and Columns: If we want to swap the fields or interchange the data fields between rows and columns, then this menu command will help or Ctrl + W also works in this case.

Map Menu

Map menu is useful when we need to create a map visual in tableau. We can create different types of maps to display the Country locations or any geographic data can be displayed on the tableau map.

Background Map: This option also includes some more options like None, Offline, Tableau.

If we select None, then it will display the data between the Latitude and longitude axes. If we select Offline, then that background map image will get stored into our computer cache storage and can be accessible even in offline access. Also improves the performance.

If we select Tableau, this is the default background map. If we have not selected any background map, then this will get connected to this map view.

Geocoding: Geocoding will create geographic roles and assign them to the geographical fields in our data.

Edit locations: This option will help to edit the location’s name and display names as per the geocode generated.

Map Legends: This command is helpful when we want to display the color or shape or size of the map on the basis of certain conditions on data, then by using legends we can specify them.

Map Layer: This option is helpful when you want different types of maps like street names, Country borders, etc. 

Format Menu

Format Menu is used for formatting each and every part of the sheet or dashboard to increase the look and feel of the dashboard.

This menu will format the Font, Alignment, Borders, Lines, Titles, Legends, Filters, Parameters, etc. which will increase the interactivity as well as enhance the look and feel of the dashboards.

These options are also available on Right-click -> Format on visual or sheet.

Features are as below:

Borders: This command will apply the formatting to the borders to the fields in the dashboards.

Reference Lines: This command will format the reference lines added to the graph.

Annotation: If we want to highlight any one of the values in the graph and notify that value to the user in the graph itself, then annotation will be used.

Title and Caption: Title and caption will help in assigning titles to the dashboard and caption will be displayed for the dashboard.

Cell Size: This will be used to adjust the size of the cells in tableau dashboards.

Workbook theme: Workbook theme will help us to change the theme of the entire workbook.

Server Menu

This menu option is used to publish the reports or dashboards to the Tableau server. We can access the workbooks or reports published by others.

Some more important features in Server Menu:

Sign In: This is very important as we need to sign Into the Tableau server to publish our reports and give access to the client.

Open workbook: If you want to open any workbook from the tableau server then this menu command will be used.

Publish Workbook: Publish your workbook to the server.

Create user filters: This will help to create user filters in Tableau which is required in Row Level Security (RLS).

Tableau Public: If we want to open any workbook saved on Tableau public, then that can be accessed via this option under the Server menu.

Wrap Up!

We have tried to cover almost all the menus which are important to enhance your skills in Tableau and we hope you all have understood all of the menu commands in Tableau.

The basic idea of these menus is very much important if you are a beginner, intermediate learner, or even if you are an expert.