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Even though Tableau has been round for a number of years now, there is a dearth of books out there to guide new users. To get the most out of Tableau, you don’t want to approach chart making in the same way that you do in Excel. The videos and webinars that Tableau offers are great, but with busy business schedules, and the need to flip back to something you’ve forgotten, a book can be an important learning tool.
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When I say dearth that’s no exaggeration, there is literally one – Stephen and Eileen McDaniel’s Rapid Graphs with Tableau. As with Tableau, the book is highly visual, I would estimate that half of the page space is taken up with charts and screenshots. The first 50 pages takes you on a mission that most new users will go on – your manager wants you to tell the story hidden behind rows of data. The book is designed so that you follow along in Tableau, using one of the sample datasets that Tableau provides as part of the install.
The rest of the book is also meant for you to read the book with Tableau open, and delves into topics beyond the basics that are critical to understanding data and guiding the end users of the data – other chart types, maps, sorting, calculations, color, and methods of distribution of the end result. Despite considering myself an advanced user of Tableau, I learned some very useful things.
I couldn’t find fault with the book – it would be interesting to watch how a completely novice user works through it – with the “curse of knowledge” I knew where to click, what to do, and I couldn’t force myself into pretending I didn’t know. I suspect they’d be fine. The book is subtitled “Create Intuitive, Actionable Insights in Just 15 Days”. I think that’s a reasonable expectation, but don’t take my word for it, read the first few chapters here.
Disclaimer: I asked Stephen and Eileen if they would like me to review the book. They accepted and sent me a complimentary copy which I thank them for. However, this was not in exchange for a good review – this honestly is a great book for new and more advanced Tableau users.
