Creating an Education Data Dashboard

1. Download Tableau Public 9.0 for free1

2. Install the Tableau Add-In for Microsoft Excel.2 This is not required, but it makes reformatting your data
much easier.
3. Reformat your spreadsheet such that each data point has its own row (this is where the plugin helps). Save
the sheet.

4. Open Tableau. Click Connect > Excel and select the file. On the next dialogue, double click the worksheet
with the reformatted data, and click Sheet 1 on the bottom menu.
5. Select at least one dimension, hold CTRL and select at least one measure. Then click the Show Me and select
the chart type you want.

6. Rearrange the measures and dimensions on your Columns and Rows shelves until the graph looks generally
how you would like it.
7. For any measure or dimension you would like to disaggregate, right click on it and select Show Quick Filter.
After the filter is displayed, you can select the down arrow in the top right corner to edit the filters settings.
8. Once you have a visualization set up, select Dashboard in the top menu, then New Dashboard to create a
dashboard.
9. Now drag the sheet you just created onto the dashboard. Here you can add titles, images, notes, and adjust
the size of the dashboard from the left menu. Its recommended that you set a static size.
10. After you have created your dashboard, select File > Save to Tableau Public As... You will have to create an
account if you dont have one.
11. Once it has saved to the Tableau server, you can click the Share button on the bottom right corner for a
sharable link or embed code.
12. Youre done!
1 tableausoftware.com/public/download
2 http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/addin-reshaping-data-excel