Template: NIH Library Info Sheet

Introduction to Biological Data Visualization with Tableau

Places to go for help with Tableau

The Federal Account manager for Tableau is Dave Wilkinson:

1) Click on the Help Menu is Tableau. This menu provides direct links to Tableau support and example workbooks.

2) The top selection in the Help menu is Open Help. This is the on-line manual located at

This is the complete manual for the most up-to-date version of the software and a wonderful thing. The search functions very well.

3) The on-line training options can be found here:

Note: I find these extremely useful and efficient too. I've been viewing both on-demand and live training for years, and these guys have really figured out how to run an on-line class. Want to know how to do something? Find a video, spend 10-20 mintues, and you're there.

4) Here is the top page of Tableau Support:

This is a great place to ask a question:

5) Tableau Public There is a highly functional community of data nerds and visualization experts to be found here. Come, explore, ask questions, copy good ideas.

6) Me. Not to put too fine a point on it, but,

FYI, one of my best tricks is to treat Google like an oracle and just start typing my question including 'Tableau' in the string, most of the time, I will find relevant answers.

7) These are the paper books that I used while preparing this class:

Communicating Data with Tableau by Ben Jones

Rapid Graphs with Tableau by Stephen McDaniel

Tableau Your Data by David Murray

Tableau8 by George Peck

A search through your library, Amazon, or O'Reilly will help you to find the most recent editions of these fine publications and others too.

Here are some excellent visual design references and resources.

1) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative

Envisioning Information

All of these are by Edward Tufte.

2) Show Me the Numbers by Steven Few.

3) The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. This is an excellent book that can help you break any bad habits you might have.

4) The following blogs are excellent for ideas about visualization

Gravyanecdote

The Datablick Blog

Vizcandy

EagerEyes

Flowing Data

VizWiz

PaintbyNumbers

Dataremixed

Drawingwithnumbers

TableauZen

Health Intelligence (Ramon Martinez)

and many others...

Prepared by Katherine Peterson, NEI, NIH