What To Do When Stuck In Tableau

No matter how proficient you are using Tableau, you will eventually run into a situation where you require assistance. No matter your level of experience with Tableau, there will always be something new to learn due to the abundance of new features. I don’t believe anyone is an expert in everything Tableau, though some do get close! Whether it be problems with Desktop, Server, Prep, the API, or something else.

Utilising Tableau also requires ongoing Tableau learning. It’s difficult for someone to be familiar with everything about the product because it changes so frequently and gets new features every few months.

So what do you do when you run into a problem? You could spend money on a Tableau consultant, though. Or, if you have some free time and want to save money, there is a very active community where you can probably find someone who will help you out without charging you. You can learn more about Tableau and how it works by checking out the Tableau online course. 

Where To Find Help With Tableau

There are a number of free avenues to ask for help. 

1.The Official Tableau Community Forum

There have been official Tableau forums for a while. You might nearly always find a solution to your challenging questions here.

The user base is enormous, and many very qualified and experienced individuals, such as Zen Masters, Tableau trainers, leaders in their organisations, etc., are answering the queries.

The people who answer queries on the Tableau forum are typically quite helpful and provide in-depth responses. Sometimes they perform your duties for you!

The forum features sections dedicated to particular components of the Tableau product line, and it’s easy to tag your query so that it goes into the appropriate category.

You can include a lot of information in your question, as well as upload files and screenshots, which improves the quality of the response you receive.

Because Tableau was clever and “gamified” its forum, when you respond to inquiries, the recipients (should) credit you. (I say should since in the old forum maybe up to 50% didn’t bother – making the point totals of the forum grinders even more astounding!)

A Tableau Ambassador title may be awarded to some forum grinders. The requirements for this medal are unclear, however, you might succeed if you spend several hours each day for several months politely responding to forum inquiries. Even the Zen Master title has apparently been granted to some multi-year mega-grinders for their forum contributions.

2.Reddit – the Tableau subreddit

Another vibrant group on Reddit is the Tableau subreddit. You can still pose the question, submit photographs, and connect to any workbooks you have on Tableau Public even though you can’t give as much detail as you can on the Tableau forum. TWBX file uploads are not permitted on Reddit.

Simple inquiries (such as those involving calculations) appear to be resolved quickly (within a few hours) on this forum.

Compared to the Tableau Forum, the style of the response is different. Redditors will downvote your question if it is poorly phrased because they are much more forthright in their responses. But don’t let that discourage you; there are some highly knowledgeable Tableau users who actively use that site, so you have a decent chance of receiving an insightful response. But unlike what can occur on the Tableau forum, Redditors won’t complete your task for you!

Reddit has been gamified as well; users can grant points and upvote or downvote answers. These credits, however, are not particularly valuable and can be obtained on a variety of Reddit subreddits; they serve more as a measure of your Reddit participation than of your assistance with Tableau.

3.Stackoverflow

One of the first IT discussion boards, StackOverflow, also features a section specifically for Tableau. The Tableau-API, as it is known, actually includes everything related to Tableau.

Additionally, there are some decent and helpful people answering queries about Tableau in this forum, which is also pretty busy.

Compared to the Tableau forum and the Reddit Tableau community, it does get fewer questions.

The queries range from straightforward desktop maths problems to more intricate API-related queries.

Stackoverflow is also gamified; both questions and answers can receive up- or down-votes, similar to Reddit & Tableau. As points are given out depending on upvotes and accurate responses, this unlocks new sections of the forum and makes it possible to amend questions, among other things.

4.Twitter (now known as X) for Tableau questions

Not a forum, but an additional resource. Better for brief inquiries because a tweet can only have so many characters! It is possible to link to Tableau Public from a tweet while also including images.

With the hashtags #datafam and #tableau, there is a significant probability that someone will see your tweet.

You may tag Tableau and Tableau Public directly on Twitter (now known as X), which means you might hear back from Tableau Software immediately!

For technical queries, I personally would check the forums before Twitter, but you have this option as well.

5.LinkedIn for Tableau questions

LinkedIn is a significant social media platform, and it offers a variety of Tableau-related groups, including Tableau Enthusiasts and the Tableau Developers Group. Long descriptions in a question and answer are challenging because there is a limit on the amount you may post.

A post may include an image as well as a link to Tableau Public or an external image server, such as Imgur.

When a user asks a question within a Tableau Group, the question is forwarded to several Tableau users’ news feeds.

Which Forum Should I Use?

You don’t need to stick to one forum; if you need an answer to your question, post it on all of the forums. Numerous people do this; as an illustration, I’ve seen posts on Stackoverflow that link to people’s duplicate questions on the Tableau Forum. Getting the greatest response as soon as possible is crucial.

Better questions lead to better responses.

They all have one thing in common: the calibre of the questions and the calibre of the replies are closely correlated. Answers to questions that force the respondent to speculate or make assumptions about the data may not fix the issue. The response might not match the real data structure, for instance, if the respondent is estimating the data structure.

As a result, be sure to ask an insightful question! Explain the problem, what you’re attempting to accomplish, and why you’re attempting it, and specify the data structure as clearly as you can. Screenshots and practice worksheets are quite helpful! Workbooks ought to always be:

Any respondent can download and view the data by publishing it to Tableau Public. The data is also attached as a TWBX or packed workbook. The data connections will be lost if you try to open a TWB file to see what’s going on!

Conclusion To learn more about Tableau, check out the online Tableau training.