1. Mobile navigation and export options
In this screencast, we're going to see two things: how to add navigation buttons to our mobile views, and how to export our work outside of Tableau.
Let's focus on navigation first. We already discussed mobile before and how it's important for people who need mobile or offline access. Now we want to take this a step further and allow users to navigate from one view to the other, instead of having all the views on top of each other and having to scroll or zoom.
We have two visualizations: one line graph about incidents, and one about requests. We want to let users navigate from one to the other. So we select a navigation object and drag it up there. Now we can right-click on it and select "Edit Button...". In the "Navigate to" drop-down we select "Requests". We want this to be a text button, but we could use an image saved on our computer if we wanted to. We then add a title, "Go to Requests". In terms of formatting, let's just use a light blue background. Although it's optional, let's also enter a tooltip: "Tap on this button to go to the Requests visualization".
Let's quickly do the same for "Requests": add a navigation button here, "Edit Button...", navigate to Incidents, add a title: "Go to Incidents", with a light-blue background and a helpful tooltip.
Now this is how our two dashboards look like. Let's try the Presentation view: we can click on the buttons and we are taken to the appropriate dashboard, as expected.
Let's escape. Now we can discuss export options: we may want to use our visualizations outside of Tableau. On Tableau Desktop, if we're going on a dashboard, one thing we can do is click on the Dashboard menu item, and then "Copy Image", if we want to copy it directly to another software, like in an email or a Google Doc presentation. We can also "Export Image..." to PNG, Bitmap or JPG, and choose the folder where we want to save the file.
We can do pretty much the same thing with sheets: select the "Worksheet" menu item, and then we can also copy and export.
We can also export as a Power Point, by clicking on the "File" menu item, and selecting "Export as Power Point".
From the same menu we can export to PDF. We may want to format the setup first, by clicking "Page Setup..." and for example choosing whether or not we want titles and legends to appear, where the legend should be, etc.
Then we can go to "File" and click on "Print to PDF" and then "OK" (on a PC), or "Print..." and "Save as PDF" from the "PDF" dropdown (on a Mac).
Finally, we can click "Share" to save the workbook on a server. On Tableau Desktop, you can choose the server. On Tableau public, the only place you can save your work is the Public Tableau gallery. Keep in mind that if you choose to do that, everyone will be able to access your work.
On Tableau Public, the export menus we just discussed are not available. The only way to export your work is to share it on Tableau Public. Once on Tableau Public, you can find your visualization on your account, and click on the Download button: then you will be able to export to an image, a PDF or a Power Point file.
2. Let's practice!