Downloading Tableau and Examining the Start Page
Downloading Tableau
Step 1 - Go to www.tableau.com/students
Step 2 - Click “Get Tableau for Free” and fill out the form with your “.edu” school email
Step 3 - Download Tableau Desktop
Step 4 - Go to your email and retrieve your license key.
Note: if you have difficulty getting a key for any reason, email tft@tableau.com with a screenshot of your course schedule to prove you’re a student, and they’ll send you a key directly.
Step 5 - Open Tableau, navigate to “Help”, and open “Manage Product Keys”
Step 6 - Enter your license key and hit “Activate”.
Simple as that, you’re all registered and set to go! Your student license lasts one year and after the year is up, if you’re still a student, you can renew your license.
Examining the Start Page
Flag 1 - Connecting to a File
This section on your start page indicates where you can connect to your data files saved on your computer. If you download, make, or have a data set in an excel file, csv file, or more, this is where you can bring in your data source you want to use.
Flag 2 - Connecting to a Server
You’ll usually use this section if you’re working for a company that uses specific servers. Tableau can connect to multiple different servers such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, Azure, Dropbox, and more.
Flag 3 - Saved Data Sources
These are sample data sets that Tableau provides. When you download the software, Tableau also provides you a repository folder which also holds these clean sample data sets as excel files. When you click the samples, they will automatically load without you needing to find the files.
*The posts helping you build visualizations in Tableau use Sample - Superstore.
Flag 4 - Open a Workbook
This area is where you can find recent workbooks opened and quickly load them in if you want to work on them.
Flag 5 - Sample Workbooks
This section provides you with sample workbooks that you can open to play around in and see how they were built. Clicking on “More Samples” will lead you to a gallery of downloadable sample workbooks.
Flag 6 - Discover
The Discover side bar provides you with links to the Tableau training videos, blog, forums, and Tableau Prep (a data cleaning and prepping software).
Written by: Maria Brock