You can also put a data item on the view and view underlying data. What's nifty is that if you really wanted to, you could copy and export the underlying data table to excel. The one use case that I like (especially if you're using two monitors), is to see the data in excel and work with the data in Tableau. 

Over the last month or two, I've had a couple of people talk to me about difficult it is to see the data in Tableau.  [Brakes screeching]. Say what??? That's Tableau's thing. What do you mean? 

What I've learned from talking with folks is that one thing that they like about Excel is that they can see what data they have and then go and build charts, graphs, or pivot tables from it. And it's not so apparent in Tableau.  While Tableau is all about the data, it seems to be more about data discovery while putting the data on the view. That works for a lot of folks.  But there are others that are bridging the gap from another tool to Tableau or they want to know what they're working with before they actually build something. 

So, I found five easy peasy ways to see the data (and there are others, I'm sure). 

Once you Go to Worksheet, you'll have all the data right at your fingertips. But what if you want to see it again before putting something on the view? No problem! There are a few ways to get at your data.  

You can also view the data at the data item level. Right click and select describe (this is actually the one I use the most).  Once you put the data item in the view, you can also right click on the data item and view underlying data.  

The one use case I like for copying and pasting into excel (especially when I have two monitors available) is to see the data in excel and then work with the data in Tableau.

So there ya go. Several different ways so that you can see and work with your data and produce an awesome viz. 

I've been meaning to post this talk I gave at [redacted]. It was a lot of fun and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Since my agency has robust ethics rules, I redacted some information out but I thought I would share what I presented.  The talk was about 30-45 minutes and there was a great group with some senior leadership in the room which was really nice.  I love seeing management take an interest in visual analytics.  

I'm trying to clear a backlog of things that I've been meaning to do. And this is just one of them.  Going through the slide deck again made me remember how awesome it felt to talk to folks who are just getting started.  Did I mention that I LOVED LOVED LOVED it? 

There's nothing earth shattering in the deck but it led to some good discussion during and after the talk. Click the pic and check it out!