Update 2: This is announced as fixed in Tableau Desktop 8.2.2 but not in server
http://vizdiff.blogspot.com/2014/08/tableau-bug-fix-color-palette-range.html

Update 1: After communicating with Tableau support staff, the question came down to: whose color range definition to respect? The user's or the data source range?

In the absence of color range definition, Tableau uses the data source's lowest-highest values to set color range. That's totally fine.

However, when the user has defined the color range, Tableau has no excuse but to follow the user's definition.

For example, the user defines the color range to be 1-100. Even if the the data source has a range of 10-20 or -100 to +200, you just can't use those as the color range. You have to respect what the user defines. He means it.

In my case, I defined 2 of the 3 control points of the color range. I want them to be respected. Tableau can't alter it by saying that the data source only contains zeros. My definition must have priority over the data range.

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In a heat map, I need to assign red color to value 0 and green to all values above 0. Currently all the data are made 0 just for showing what the problem is. I am using Tableau 8.1.6.

The Red-Green Diverging Palette is selected. The way I define the color range is Start==0, Center==1, and leave End open. To my surprise, the color range is made to be 0-0 as we can see a 0 is automatically placed in End box by default. The Center value is totally ignored. And I get all my values to be green. Changing Center value to higher value doesn't have any effect. The total palette remains green. From 0-1, the color is supposed to be red but it is not working.

Tableau customer support staff replied that the upper limit is detected automatically in case it is left open. It seems the detection algorithm is to pick the lower limit rather than the center value. This logic surprises me very much.

If I give a fixed number to End, then it works. But, in most cases, I don't know what the highest value is for End. And it's an option to not give one.

The above article is about a nice date filter that defaults to last date in the data source. For example, it allows us to always default to the current month.

The key settings for the filter (assume it's a month/year filter) are:

1.Select Use All the data 

This option allows us to get all the data available, instead of from a specific list. So it is dynamic and always has the most recent data.

2.Go to the TOP tab and select Top 1 of the Maximum of the date field

The "Use All" may not be set as you have expected in certain circumstances. Below will show you the erratic behavior of Date quick filter when "Use All" is concerned. Let's start.

1.Set the MY(Date) filter up with "Use All" and Top 1 of Maximum(Date).
2.Show quick filter and make it a dropdown menu. We see an option (All) in the dropdown menu.

3.Go to the filter menu Customize>Show "All" Value, and uncheck it. Select any other option in the dropdown menu. Then the option (All) disappears from the dropdown menu.
4.Open the Edit Filter, we see that filter is set to "Select from List". Now set it again to "Use All" and Top 1 of Maximum(Date).
5.The option (All) appears again at the selected position in the menu. Select another option and (All) will disappear again from the dropdown.

So here Step 4 to select "Use All" is in vain. The option (All) appears to be selected. But it is not an actual option at all. That's a bug I believe.

The culprit is that Show "All" Value remains unchecked. To remedy the bug, my suggested fix is, when setting filter to "Use All" in Step 4, make "Show All Value" checked as a corollary result! When an author of the dashboard selects "Use All" in filter setting, he may not be aware of or have forgotten whether he checked or not "Show All Value".

The author just wants to have a working filter. So, the "Use All" filter option needs to be able to override the status of "Show All Value" and to set it to be checked. Otherwise, this setting is not working as the author expected.

When I select full color range AND set Center==End==Same_Value, it hangs and then crashes. In this example, Center==End==50. I know it's a little extreme, but. By the way, I am using Tableau 8.1.6 and run it on Wondows 7.