Building Views AutomaticallyTableau contains a suite of tools designed to help you quickly create useful views. Two situations in which you would want to create views automatically are when you want:

Better Insight – People often have difficulty mapping data to views that address their analytical or presentation needs. Tableau contains built-in rules that are used to examine data and suggest ways of looking at it. In this way the software acts as a tour guide for producing useful views of data.

Time Savings – Building data views manually can sometimes be time consuming. Using Tableau’s automatic features can help you work faster by giving you a starting view that you can further refine manually.

Automatically generate views using Show Me or Double-Click.Show MeAdd to Sheet: Double-Click Show MeShow Me creates a view based on the fields already used in the view and any fields you’ve selected in the Data window. Open Show Me by clicking Show Me on the

toolbar  . When you use Show Me simply select fields you want to analyze in the Data window and then select the type of view you want to create. Tableau automatically evaluates the selected fields and gives you the option of several types of views that would be appropriate for those fields. Further, Show Me highlights the visualization type that best matches the data.

1. Select fields in the Data window that you want to analyze. Hold the Ctrl key to make multiple selections.

2. Click Show Me on the toolbar and then select the type of view you want to create.

Any view type that is not gray will generate a view of your data. As you hover over each view type, the description at the bottom shows the minimum requirements.

3. View the Result. Tableau automatically creates a view of the data.

 Add to Sheet: Double-ClickTableau supports an additional method for automatically generating views of data called Automatic Double-Click. To use this method, double-click fields in the Data window you are interested in. Tableau automatically adds each field to the view. That is, each double-click results in an additional field added to a shelf in an intelligent way. Like Show Me!, this function leverages Tableau’s ability to make an intelligent “best guess” of how the data should be displayed.

1. Double-clicking the Profit measure in the Data window automatically adds that field to the view in an intelligent way.

2. Double-clicking the Department dimension in the Data window automatically adds that field to the view based on the fact that Profit is already on the Rows shelf.

3. Double-clicking the Order Date dimension in the Data window automatically adds that field to the Columns shelf based on the placement of other fields in the view. As you double-click fields they are successively added to the view. The order in which you click fields determines the type of view created.

The following table describes some of the rules used in creating automatic views by double-clicking fields in the Data window.

Text Table Adding a dimension first produces a text table (or cross-tab). All subsequent clicks on fields result in refinement of the text table.

Bars Adding a measure first and then a dimension produces a bar view. All subsequent clicks result in refinement of the bar view, unless a date dimension is added, at which time the view is changed to a line.

Line Adding a measure and then a date dimension produces a line view. All subsequent clicks result in refinement of the line view.

Continuous Line

Adding a continuous dimension and then a measure produces a continuous line view. Subsequent dimensions result in refinement of the continuous line view. Subsequent measures add quantitative axes to the view.

Scatter Adding a measure and then another measure produces a scatter view. Subsequent dimensions result in refinement to the scatter view. Subsequent measures will create a scatter matrix.

Maps Adding a geographic field produces a map view with latitude and longitude as axes and the geographic field on the Level of Detail shelf. Subsequent dimensions add rows to the view while subsequent measures further refine the

map by adding size and color encoding.