Excel Tip – VLookup Basics
The VLookup is the most useful and powerful function in Excel. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve been working in Excel for nearly 20 years and have not used any other function as much or with as much utility and success.This tutorial is going to get you setup with the basics of building a VLookup. […]
Animate your Tableau dashboards on the Web
In this tutorial you will learn how to animate your Tableau dashboards on the Web. This will require basic understanding of Tableau — basic HTML and Javascript knowledge will also be helpful. Background Tableau dashboard developers have long wanted to show how things change over time in their views. In Tableau desktop this is possible using the Pages shelf […]
bit.ly data to CSV (for import to Tableau)
Recently I received a request to pull some metrics for our use of bit.ly in social media and display them in a Tableau dashboard. While Tableau doesn’t have a native connection to bit.ly there is a great example from Andy Cotgreave on how to do this here: Analysing click counts from bit.ly using Python and […]
MoPal Elastic Search Query Tool
Have mounds of data buried away in Elastic Search where your favorite query tool, Tableau, can’t reach it? Have no fear, MoPal is here! MoPal is a simple PHP app which allows you to execute Elastic Search queries (if you can call them that) and save the results to comma separate values (.csv) files. I […]
Consumer Confidence Visualized…correctly
Recently NASDAQ OMX released their NASDAQ Economic Calendar Reports on Facebook. One of these reports attempted to explain that consumer confidence rose 6% month-over-month in July 2012. Unfortunately the visualization was so poorly designed that this information is almost impossible to extract. Thankfully for you, I have taken the liberty to visualize this data using […]
Keyboard Settings for Excel via VMFusion
Ever have problems using your standard keyboard shortcuts in Excel when running it on a Mac in VMFusion? Me too… So, after some digging and testing I found some of my basic Excel navigation functions would trigger rather heinous responses by my Mac (currently running Lion). Here is what I was able to do to […]
Delivering WOW through Data
Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos.com, wrote in his book Delivering Happiness that their first objective is to Deliver WOW through Service. In the book he described a parody of <a href=”http://bensullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Maslow”s_hierarchy_of_needs” target=”_blank”>Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for delivering WOW. At the bottom layer you have Meeting Expectations…in BI this is like replacing the reports users already […]
Finding your Tableau Server PostgreSQL database port
Ever have issues connecting to your Tableau Server PostgreSQL database due to a port issue? If so, you’re not alone! I too have struggled with this before and after hitting it just the second time I did some digging and fond how to determine the port of the Tableau Server PostgreSQL database. Here you go: […]
How to add an ‘All’ parameter option in Tableau
Ever wanted to include an ‘All’ option in your Tableau parameters? Simple! Here’s how: Create your parameter with the options available. In this example I’m creating one for [Region]. Make sure to manually add the ‘ALL’ option. Drag the corresponding field you will be filtering on to the filters shelf Right click on the field […]
Customizing Tableau Server Logos and Icons
When deploying Tableau Server for a client, I often find that clients wish to customize their Tableau Server environment with their own branding. The Tableau Server Administration Guide offers some options for customizing Tableau Server however it is limited in what it allows. Here are the default options that you can customize using tabadmin commands […]