Tableau Desktop Specialist

Key Topics to Master:

• Bar charts, line charts, scatterplots, and stacked bars
• Maps from geographic data, and density maps
• Combined axis charts and dual axis charts
• Crosstabs and highlight tables for showing specific values
• Creating groups from marks, headers, and the data pane, and creating sets
• Organising dimensions into a hierarchy
• Adding filters to a view, including date filters
• Manual and computed sorts, reference lines, and quick table calculations
• Bins and histograms, calculated fields, when to use a parameter, and displaying totals

Key Topics to Master:

• Using color from the marks card, configuring fonts, and formatting marks as shapes
• Configuring viz animations and changing mark size
• Showing and hiding legends
• Adding worksheets to a dashboard
• Interactive elements for consumers, including show filters, the data highlighter, and tooltips
• Dashboard actions: filter, highlight, parameter control, and URL actions
• Dashboard layout and device-specific dashboards
• Creating a story and story points
• Sharing a workbook as a packaged workbook, a PDF, or an image, publishing to Tableau Server, viewing and exporting underlying data, and exporting to Microsoft PowerPoint

Key Topics to Master:

• Creating a live connection to a data source, and creating an extract
• Explaining the differences between live connections and extracts
• Saving metadata properties in a .tds file
• Creating a data source that uses multiple connections
• Adding relationships to a data source, and adding joins and unions
• Explaining when to use a join against a relationship
• Renaming a data field and assigning an alias to a data value
• Assigning a geographic role to a field
• Changing a field's data type and default properties, including number format, aggregation, color, and date format

Key Topics to Master:

• What kind of information dimensions usually contain
• What kind of information measures usually contain
• The difference between dimensions and measures
• How discrete fields are displayed in a view
• How continuous fields are displayed in a view
• The difference between discrete date parts and continuous date values
• The default aggregation applied to measures
• How an aggregated measure changes when dimensions are added to a view

• 1Download the official Salesforce Certified Tableau Desktop Foundations exam guide and copy its four sections and every sub-objective into a checklist.
• 2Install Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public and load the Sample Superstore dataset that most tutorials assume.
• 3Write your own one-paragraph answers to the eight Understanding Tableau Concepts objectives before reading anyone else's, then check them against the Tableau documentation.
• 4Drag the same field onto Columns as a dimension and then as a measure and describe out loud what changed.
• 5Toggle a date field between discrete date parts and continuous date values and record the difference in the axis and headers.

• 1Create a live connection to a file source and to a database, then create an extract from each and note the file that results.
• 2Write down three cases where a live connection is right and three where an extract is right, in terms of freshness, performance, and portability.
• 3Save metadata properties to a .tds file and reuse it on a new workbook.
• 4Build a data source that uses multiple connections and observe what Tableau allows across them.
• 5Add a relationship, then a join, then a union on the same data, and write one sentence explaining when to use a relationship rather than a join.

• 1Rename fields, assign aliases to values, and confirm where each change shows up in a view.
• 2Assign a geographic role to a text field and build a map from it.
• 3Change data types between number, date, string, and Boolean and see which visualizations become available or unavailable.
• 4Set default number format, default aggregation, default color, and default date format on separate fields and confirm they persist into new worksheets.
• 5Work through the Tableau documentation pages on data types and field properties.

• 1Build a bar chart, line chart, scatterplot, and stacked bar from Sample Superstore without using Show Me.
• 2Build a map from geographic data and then a density map from the same fields.
• 3Build a combined axis chart and a dual axis chart on the same pair of measures and articulate the difference between them.
• 4Build a crosstab and a highlight table and note when each communicates better than a chart.
• 5Repeat every chart above on a second dataset so the steps are not tied to one file.

• 1Create groups three ways: from marks in the view, from headers, and from the data pane.
• 2Create sets from marks and from the data pane, and compare a set against a group in terms of what each can do.
• 3Build a dimension hierarchy and drill through it in a view.
• 4Add a dimension filter, a measure filter, and a date filter, and try relative date, range of dates, and discrete date filter modes.
• 5Read the Tableau documentation on filter order of operations so you know why one filter overrides another.

• 1Apply a manual sort by dragging headers and a computed sort from the sort dialog, and note when each survives a data refresh.
• 2Add reference lines at a constant, an average, and a computed value.
• 3Apply quick table calculations for running total, percent of total, and difference, then open the underlying calculation to see what Tableau wrote.
• 4Create bins from a measure and build a histogram from them.
• 5Write string, date, and simple arithmetic calculated fields, and build one parameter that switches a view, so you can explain when a parameter is the right tool.

• 1Use the marks card to apply color, then override it with a custom palette, and show and hide the resulting legend.
• 2Configure fonts at workbook, worksheet, and field level so you know where each setting lives.
• 3Format marks as shapes and assign a custom shape palette.
• 4Turn on viz animations and change mark size, then check both on a dashboard rather than only on a worksheet.
• 5Add grand totals and subtotals to a crosstab and confirm how the totals aggregate.

• 1Build a dashboard with three worksheets, using both tiled and floating layout so you have used each.
• 2Add show filters, a data highlighter, and a tooltip that includes a viz in tooltip.
• 3Add a filter action, a highlight action, a parameter control, and a URL action, and test each from the dashboard.
• 4Create a device-specific layout for phone and check it in the device preview.
• 5Build a story with at least three story points that walk through one finding.

• 1Save a workbook as a packaged workbook and confirm what the extract inside it contains.
• 2Export the same dashboard as a PDF, as an image, and to Microsoft PowerPoint, and note which one preserves interactivity.
• 3Publish a workbook to Tableau Public or Tableau Server and check what changes about the data source.
• 4View underlying data from a mark, then export it, and confirm which columns come through.
• 5Read the Tableau documentation on the difference between a workbook and a packaged workbook.

• 1Go back through your exam guide checklist and mark every sub-objective you cannot demonstrate without help.
• 2Weight your remaining time by the published percentages: Exploring and Analyzing Data at 37 percent is worth roughly 15 of the 40 scored items.
• 3Sit two full practice sets under a strict 70-minute clock, which is 105 seconds per question.
• 4Practise with Tableau closed and no documentation open, since no hard-copy or online materials are permitted during the exam.
• 5Re-answer the eight Understanding Tableau Concepts objectives from memory in writing, since that section is 15 percent and is pure recall.