Tuesdays with Tableau: 9 Reasons to Try Tableau 9

By Paul Ausserer

Tableau 9's new home screen makes getting started even easier!

The new Tableau 9 is packed full of game-changing enhancements that take the experience of data analysis to a whole new level. This is great news for leaders who want to get more out of their data without stretching timelines or budgets. To whet your appetite, here is a glimpse of my 9 favorite new features in Tableau 9:

1. Fast-Fast-Fast!

It’s not just a snazzy marketing campaign claiming that Tableau 9.0 is faster; this is the real deal. With combinations of the new data engine, parallel query processor, query fusion, and query caching, the user experience and application responsiveness are drastically improved. You won’t believe the night-and-day difference: open your 8.x workbooks in version 9 to see for yourself!

2. Hello, RegEx and Split!

I’ve always missed my long-lost string expressions from Tableau and am excited to finally see them in the core product. I used Split on my very first Tableau 9 workbook! Arming a data analyst with these powerful string manipulation methods makes Tableau a much better data cleansing, data preparation, and data analytical tool.

3. Level of Data (LOD) Expressions

LOD Expressions are a new syntax in Tableau 9 that both simplify and extend Tableau’s calculation language, making it possible to answer very specific questions using data aggregated at varying levels of detail. Gone are the days of wrangling the Partitioning and Addressing dialogs to align table calculations to meet your needs. Now, simply use a level of detail calculation to specifically identify the aggregation detail within the calculation itself, not within the visualization. This is a huge development – take some time to research and become familiar with LOD Expressions; you’ll soon wonder how you lived without them! (See Tableau’s whitepaper for more details.)

4. Web Calculation Editor

Were you just as disappointed as I when your Tableau Server client asked, “How do I create my own calculations”? The answer used to be, “Using Tableau Desktop.” With the new web calculation features, Tableau Server users can now create richer and more personalized analyses without a Tableau Desktop license. The gap between Desktop and Server is narrowing, and the capability for everyone to create business insight is growing!

5. New Analytics Pane

The one thing I have always loved about Tableau is its canvas-centric design and lack of nested ribbon menus or multi-level dialogs. With the new Analytics Pane, Tableau has made it even easier to stay within the visualization and the flow of analysis. Now you can drag a trend line or forecast directly onto a visualization without the need for a dialog. While this is a subtle change, this is proof that Tableau “gets it” when it comes to usability and staying focused on the data.

6. Calculation Editor

The calculation editor has improved on many fronts, but the best enhancement in my book is the introduction of intelligence for dimensions and measures. If you prefer to type your calculations, you can stay in the flow their work instead of grabbing your mouse and changing context. Mouse lovers get some love here as well – you can now drag and drop dimensions and measures to build your calculations. So, whether you prefer to type or use a mouse, Tableau has improved your calculation authoring experience!

7. Improved Map Search and Select

Have you ever wanted to zoom into a city or state directly and found yourself frustrated with the zoom controls? Well, with smart search on maps you can enter “Seattle” and the map will auto-zoom into that area. Another great enhancement is the radial and lasso selectors for much improved map interaction. You can quickly highlight all the data points surrounding a specific location in a radial fashion, or draw a custom area specific targeting your question.

8. Data Preparation

Tableau has added some data preparation features that make data manipulation much easier and keep you within Tableau (no more Excel!) For example, you can now properly shape rows of data that have separate columns for each Category or Year value into newly created rows of data. By pivoting the data you can now have Year as a dimension and work with your data in a much more intuitive manner.

9. Tableau Server Usability

The newly redesigned Tableau Server interface lets you view all workbooks on a single page, search across all content, and see breadcrumbs as you navigate. Spend less time looking for the menu options you want and more time understanding what your data has to say. Rebuilt from the ground up = Well done, Tableau!

The long story short is, you really can’t afford not to upgrade to Tableau 9. If you’d like to learn more about how Tableau 9 can help you reach your goals sooner, contact Marquis Leadership today. We would love to demo these new features for you, assist with your upgrade, and help you get where you’re going.