Data Visualization and BI with Tableau Desktop
Data Visualization and BI with Tableau Desktop is a course in analysing and presenting data with Tableau Desktop, from connecting data and building relationship-based data models to calculated fields, LOD expressions, maps and interactive dashboards. It suits data analysts, digital marketers and Excel report builders, and you leave able to build a sales dashboard ready to present.
- Duration18 hours · 3 days
- FormatOnsite / live online
- Next roundOn request
- CertificateIncluded
Course overview
Most organisations already have data on sales, customers, stock and marketing, but it is spread across many files and systems, Excel reports have to be rebuilt by hand every month, and the charts often miss the business question. Tableau Desktop lets you connect several data sources, explore data by dragging and dropping, and build interactive dashboards that managers can actually use to decide. Getting real value from it, though, means understanding the data structure, the calculations and the principles of visual communication.
This course takes you through the current Tableau Desktop from the basics to a working dashboard. It starts with connecting and preparing data, building a data model with relationships, understanding dimensions and measures and choosing the right chart, then covers filters, groups, sets, calculated fields, table calculations, LOD expressions, parameters and analytics such as trend lines, forecasting and clustering. Everything comes together in maps, dashboards with actions and stories, finishing with a workshop that builds a sales dashboard from raw data to presentation. (3 days, 6 hours per day, 18 hours in total, Beginner to Intermediate level.)
What you’ll gain
- Connect to data sources, choose live or extract, and do basic data preparation in Tableau Desktop
- Build a correct data model with relationships, joins, unions and blending
- Understand dimensions, measures, discrete and continuous fields, and choose charts that fit the question
- Organise data with filters, groups, sets and hierarchies
- Write calculated fields, table calculations and LOD expressions
- Use parameters and analytics tools such as trend lines, forecasting and clustering
- Present data on maps and build interactive dashboards and stories with actions
- Share work through Tableau Public, Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server
Who this course is for
- Data analysts and data scientists
- Digital marketers and sales teams who track results with data
- People who build reports in Excel and want to move to interactive dashboards
- BI teams and managers who read and design their team's dashboards
Prerequisites
- Confident computer use and experience with a spreadsheet such as Excel
- An understanding of tabular data such as rows, columns, totals and averages
- Some knowledge of data visualisation or SQL is helpful
- A Windows or macOS laptop that can run Tableau Desktop
Curriculum
Course Details
This course is the 2026 edition of Data Visualization and Business Intelligence with Tableau Desktop. It runs for 3 days, 6 hours per day (18 hours in total, 09:00-16:00), as lectures with labs. Beginner to Intermediate level. This edition is updated for Tableau Desktop 2026.2. It uses relationships as the main way to combine tables and adds map layers and spatial files, dynamic zone visibility, parameter and set actions, and sharing through Tableau Public and Tableau Cloud. It keeps the
original core of worksheets and views, dashboards, stories, actions, connecting data, joins and pivots, filters, groups, sets, calculated fields, table calculations, parameters, LOD expressions, analytics and maps, and finishes with a sales dashboard workshop. The course focuses on Tableau Desktop; flow-based data preparation is covered in the Tableau Prep course. Learners use Tableau Desktop on a trial or their own or their organisation's licence, or the free Tableau Public edition, and take home a lab guide, datasets and workbooks for every lab.
Day 1 Data, Data Models and Building Views
Section 1: Lab: Getting Started with Tableau Desktop 2026.2
- The Tableau family: Desktop, Prep, Public, Cloud and Server
- How .twb, .twbx, .hyper and .tds files differ
- Tour the Data Source page, worksheets, dashboards and stories
- The analysis workflow from business question to dashboard
- Lab: connect to an Excel file and build a first view in ten minutes
Section 2: Lab: Connecting to and Preparing Data
- Connect to Excel, CSV and databases such as SQL Server or PostgreSQL
- Live connections versus extracts, and scheduling refreshes
- Data Interpreter to clean Excel files with stacked headers
- Pivot, split, change data types and data source filters
- Lab: prepare a monthly sales file laid out as a report
Section 3: Lab: Data Models with Relationships and Joins
- The logical layer and the physical layer of the data model
- How relationships and cardinality work and how they differ from joins
- Inner, left, right and full outer joins when you need them
- Union monthly files, and blend data across sources
- Lab: combine sales, customer, product and target tables
Section 4: Dimensions, Measures and Building Views
- Dimensions and measures, discrete and continuous
- The Marks card: colour, size, label, detail and tooltip
- Date parts versus date values, and drilling down
- Folders, hierarchies, aliases and sorting
- Lab: analyse sales by region, category and period
Section 5: Lab: Choosing the Right Chart for the Question
- Bar, line, area, scatter, histogram and highlight table
- Treemaps, box plots and dual-axis charts
- Principles for choosing charts and colours, and what to avoid
- Format axes, labels and tooltips for readability
- Lab: a set of charts answering six business questions from one dataset
Day 2 Calculations and Analysis
Section 6: Lab: Filters, Groups and Sets
- Filter types and the order of operations
- Context filters and filter cards that users can adjust
- Groups, including ad hoc groups selected on a chart
- Manual sets, condition-based sets and combined sets
- Lab: compare key customers with everyone else using sets
Section 7: Lab: Calculated Fields
- Syntax, and row-level versus aggregate calculations
- Logical functions IF, CASE and IIF
- String and date functions such as SPLIT, DATEDIFF and DATETRUNC
- Handle nulls with ZN, IFNULL and ISNULL
- Lab: calculate gross profit, margin and status against target
Section 8: Table Calculations
- Quick table calculations: running total, percent of total and rank
- Difference and percent difference for growth rates
- Compute Using, partitioning and addressing
- Moving averages and the WINDOW_ and LOOKUP functions
- Lab: analyse year-over-year sales and cumulative totals
Section 9: Lab: Level of Detail Expressions
- Why LOD is needed when the calculation level differs from the view
- How FIXED, INCLUDE and EXCLUDE differ
- LOD expressions and the filter order of operations
- Real examples: first purchase, new customers and share of total
- Lab: cohort analysis by month of first purchase
Section 10: Lab: Parameters and Analytics
- Fixed parameters and dynamic parameters that read values from data
- Adjustable Top N and switching measures with parameters
- Reference lines, reference bands and average lines
- Trend lines, forecasting and clustering
- Lab: a Top N analysis dashboard with a sales forecast
Day 3 Maps, Dashboards and Sharing
Section 11: Lab: Maps and Spatial Data
- Geographic roles and fixing locations Tableau cannot find
- Filled maps, symbol maps and density maps
- Connect spatial files such as shapefiles or GeoJSON for province boundaries
- Map layers, background maps and map styles
- Lab: a sales map by province with branch locations
Section 12: Lab: Designing Dashboards
- Set the dashboard size and device layouts for phones
- Tiled, floating and horizontal and vertical layout containers
- Lay out information with KPIs on top and details below
- Viz in Tooltip and consistent formatting across the dashboard
- Lab: an executive sales overview dashboard
Section 13: Lab: Interactive Dashboards
- Filter, highlight and URL actions
- Go to Sheet, parameter actions and set actions
- Dynamic zone visibility to show or hide parts of a dashboard by condition
- Show/Hide buttons and navigation between dashboards
- Lab: drill down from overview to detail with actions
Section 14: Stories and Sharing Your Work
- Tell a data story with story points
- Export to PDF, PowerPoint and images
- Publish to Tableau Public, Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server
- The Performance Recorder and ways to make workbooks faster
- An overview of Tableau Agent and Tableau Pulse on Tableau Cloud
Section 15: Workshop: Sales Performance Dashboard
- Define the business questions and KPIs that managers need
- Prepare the data, build the data model and the calculated fields required
- Build the views, a map and a dashboard with a full set of actions
- Tell the story and publish the work
- Present the work, review it together and wrap up with a hand-over checklist
Schedule & training options
For individuals — public rounds
No public rounds are open right now. Join the waiting list and we will contact you first when the next round opens, or ask us on LINE. Or call 02-570-8449 or 088-807-9770
For organisations — in-house / private
- Tailor the content to your team’s tools and projects
- Your dates, at your office or live online
- Quotation with tax ID for procurement
Instructors
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dimensions and measures in Tableau?
A dimension is a categorical field used to split or group data, such as region, product category or date. A measure is a numeric field that gets aggregated, such as sales or profit, which Tableau sums or averages at the level of the dimensions in the view. Fields are also either discrete (blue), which create headers, or continuous (green), which create axes.
How do relationships differ from joins in Tableau, and which should I use?
Relationships connect tables at the logical layer without merging them into one table in advance. Tableau chooses how to combine them based on the fields used in each view, which avoids duplicated numbers when tables have different levels of detail, such as daily sales and monthly targets. Joins merge tables at the physical layer into a single fixed table. In most work, start with relationships and use joins when you need explicit control over how tables combine.
What are LOD expressions in Tableau, and how do FIXED, INCLUDE and EXCLUDE differ?
LOD (Level of Detail) expressions calculate at a different level of detail from the view. FIXED calculates by the dimensions you name regardless of the view, for example {FIXED [Customer] : MIN([Order Date])} finds each customer's first purchase date. INCLUDE adds dimensions for finer detail, and EXCLUDE removes dimensions for a coarser level, such as a regional total to compare shares. FIXED runs before dimension filters, so use a context filter when the filter must apply first.
What are the steps to build a dashboard in Tableau?
Start by defining the business questions and KPIs, then connect to the data and build a separate worksheet for each chart, such as monthly sales, a map and a product table. Create a new dashboard, set its size, arrange the worksheets with layout containers, add filters shared by several charts, and add actions so clicking one chart filters or highlights the others. To present in sequence, place dashboards in a story, then publish to Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server or Tableau Public.
Who is Data Visualization and BI with Tableau Desktop for, and what should I know beforehand?
It suits data analysts, data scientists, digital marketers, sales teams, people who report in Excel and BI teams who analyse and present data. You should be confident with a computer, have used a spreadsheet such as Excel and understand tabular data. Some knowledge of data visualisation or SQL helps you move faster. You can use Tableau Desktop on a trial or an organisation licence, or the free Tableau Public edition.
Can Data Visualization and BI with Tableau Desktop be run in-house for our team?
Yes. It can be run in-house for your team, with examples adapted to your own work, such as building dashboards from your team's sales or marketing data or connecting to the databases your organisation uses. You can request a quotation from this page, or contact us on LINE @itgenius or by phone on 02-570-8449.