Like the last time I walked through the top new features (for 2021.2), I’m going to do a video walk-through for 2021.4 and a brief text summary below.
Walk-through video
Summary of top features
Tableau Desktop and Web Editing
1. Copy and Paste in Dashboards
If you’ve been using Tableau, you’ve always scratched your head as to why this isn’t a feature. Copy and paste on Dashboards is now possible. It is only with objects that don’t contain any worksheets in them. But still, this is a huge productivity gain.
2. Edit Published Data Sources
In my opinion, one of the biggest discouragements from publishing a data source with standardized calculated fields was the difficulty in editing that data source. Well, now you can directly edit published data sources without downloading it and then republishing.
3. Tableau Exchange – Tableau Accelerators
Tableau… I mean Salesforce.. has bigger goals for Tableau. It’s clear they want to grow the marketplace of resources to make development and adoption easier.
Enter Tableau Exchange. Specifically Tableau Accelerators. These “Accelerators” are to give you basic templates to kick-start your development so you don’t have to start from zero.
It’s not a silver bullet since you still have to customize it to your data, but it’s a step in the right direction.
4. Multiple data sources in map layers
Break free from a few of the data prep complexities when building map visualizations! Now you can use multiple data source as map layers in a single worksheet.
5. New Metrics Improvements
- You can now embed Metrics into apps, corporate portals, and webpages
- You can now set things like the comparison period, date range, and color status indicators for each Metric
Tableau Online/Server (Specifically for Data Management Add-On)
1. Virtual Connections
In both Server and Online, you can now create and share access to tables, embed service account credentials, define data policies, and extract data centrally.
Bolded items are ones that really get me charged up.
2. Inherited Lineage Descriptions
This one feels like a further play to compete with 3rd party tools for data management. Now, everywhere a data source or workbook is used, the description will be consistent.
Tableau Prep
1. Parameters in Flows
This one is like a small seed that has the potential to sprout into a fruit-bearing, full-grown avocado tree.
You can now add some rudimentary parameters in Flows. This means you can run flows for specific inputs that are chosen at run-time.
If you’re familiar with Alteryx, this is a feature they have for both local and Alteryx Server apps. It allows users to run customized reports based on choices or data they enter before the flow is run.
While Tableau has a very basic implementation of parameters, I expect the functionality to converge with parameter features that exist in Desktop. So things like setting parameter options to the unique values of a field (like the data set’s date range).
Thanks for reading this far. I run MergeYourData.com, a consultancy that empowers businesses with automation and data.
If you’re frustrated or overwhelmed with your daily processes and feel like you’re not getting the most out of your analytics investment, reach out to us.
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Wrapping Up
Thanks for reading. Hopefully this post and video helped you understand the newer features in Tableau 2021.4. Feedback or questions? Post a comment or send me an email!
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