Tableau Your Data!: Fast and Easy Visual Analysis With Tableau Software 1st Edition

I have been using Tableau at work for about 5 months and relying on their online tutorials, which are quite good, to perform given tasks. I also have another Tableau book, so I did not think I needed anything else, but the author spoke at our Tableau Users Group earlier this month and his talk was great so I ordered the book.It turns out this book is probably the most helpful thing I've acquired since getting Tableau, itself. It has not only improved the way I use Tableau, it's changed the way I think about Tableau.Unlike other books, this one provides a complete view of what Tableau actually is and how it works from the ground up. For the first time, I feel like I am thinking about Tableau's functions in context and in order.The book also has this fantastic quality of being both readable and informative - like talking to a thoughtful, knowledgeable person about using Tableau versus reading a robotic user manual.

This is an essential book to have at the office if you have either a new Tableau user or lots of users. Great images (practically a visualization on EVERY page), well-written and an immense help to anyone looking to learn and continue growing their prowess within the Tableau suite.

@lewandogGregory Lewandowski - long time Tableau userWhere to start? Hhhhmmm...let's begin with the aesthetics of this book, from cover to cover, it screams quality with crisp typesetting, tons of well done visuals that pop, and a great feel to the pages.On to style and content...there does not seem to be a wasted sentence. Mr Murray's style of writing is clear and to the point, leaving no possibility of misinterpretation. The pace is necessarily quick; but the progression of Tableau Your Data is brilliant, bringing the reader from history, to general knowledge, to building visualizations and then through more advanced topics in a very consumable way. The layout, the tips and tricks you learn along the way, and the practical experience that Mr Murray instills make this not only an excellent resource on the topic of Tableau; but 1 of the finest technical training manuals I have come across!!Well done!!BTW - Do NOT ignore the appendices, there is tremendous information there!!

Dan is the master! As one of the longest and most steadfast partners of Tableau he has seen all the use cases and solved all the business challenges presented by users. And, he has brought them all together in this one book to help the rest of the future Tableau users gain the same insight and capabilities. Dan is articulate and thorough in his explanations and hand-holding to make all visualizations and analyses easy and understandable. He is not the master of deception - it is easy - but may not appear so when just beginning. With Dan holding your hand, you will become a pro (and have fun) in no time.This will quickly become the Tableau Bible.

Background: I have a degree in Engineering and an MBA. I've worked in IT for nearly 2 decades, working with SQL-based systems: CRM, Sales Automation, Campaign Management, Data Warehousing, Data Mining, Reporting, etc....That said, this is my first foray into the Tableau universe. This was by far the most recommended book, and having read many books under the Wiley imprint, I did not hesitate to purchase it.The Good: It is extremely detailed, with full-color illustrations. Plenty of coverage of just about every single feature imaginable. It also has references to other publications at the end of each chapter.The Bad: Not a single step-by-step example provided. Chapter 3: "Building Your First Visualization" is a horribly misleading title, as it does not discuss how to build a visualization from the beginning (wouldn't that be how to build "Your First Visualization"???). All of the feature explanations are made using examples of charts that have ALREADY been built. Bizarre title, for sure. The Use Cases are pathetic - more like a high-level sales brochure of how Tableau was used to address some real-world questions.ConclusionIf you have a wealth of experience in Tableau, and need a reference to help you with the specifics of features, then I would highly recommend this.If you are looking to learn Tableau from the ground up, this manual is absolutely the wrong choice. There are NO working examples and NO links to data that would provide a way to recreate the feature illustrations. Extremely frustrating - It should be titled, "Tableau! A Dictionary of Features! This is Not for Learning!"

This book, written for version 8 was probably a 4 Star book for that version but it loses a star today because of some of the differences in the application that aren't clear from a relative newcomers perspective. So as of today I would recommend this book for a newcomer as the function reference is really handy as you gain experience but there are other books available that are for version 9 that would be more relevant.Im also dinging it a star because it suffers from somewhat of an identity crisis - in some sections it is a step-by-step guide and in others it assumes you are working directly from the source files provided on the book web site. This type of back and forth tends to be a little confusing because I'm not sure if the author is asking me to follow along or just giving some broad strokes how to accomplish something pointing to a completed file. Which is another minor nuisance, the files are not available in tableau public so in order to use the files I have to either log in to my work machine or attempt to re-create the workbook.If it were updated for 9.1 to include building some Data Connectors and made to work in public I would purchase again as it is as good or better than any of the other tableau books I have read. If there are any publishers or authors out there here is my casting call for anyone SOMEONE please write a book for tableau from a developers perspective.