Replacing data source in Tableau has not been a pleasant task for many of us. I wrote about it a while ago:


To minimize the pain, you can follow these steps. Before replacing, do these:

1.Hold ctrl key to multi-select all calc fields, groups, sets etc (Right click and select Copy)
2.Right click Dimensions or Measures shelf in the new data source, and paste all of them in one shot.
A few notes:
- You can do the above copy-n-paste after replacing data source. Those "!" will disappear after. Some Red pills will turn normal as Green or Blue.
- Parameters are independent of data sources. No need to copy them.
- Quick filters might turn blank after replacing or color legend gets double-over-typed. The remedy is:
1.Click X on the frame to close it.
2.Ctrl-Z to undo the above. 
3.The filter will miraculously appear in multi-option form. Set the filter to single value type or whatever type you wish.

PS. Proposed an idea to Tableau to remedy the pain:


Please vote it up.

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    1. Pull the new data source in a new twb file.now open it with notepad++.search for the connection key word and you will find something like dbname="newdatasource". Now save your dashboard as twb and edit with notepad ++.again search for connection and you will find dbname="olddatasource" and here paste your new data source "newdatasource".now open your dashboard and data source would have replaced with al the formatting and alias name in place

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  2. Why go through all that pain. Just duplicate the datasource first and then change the source.

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(Refresh the page if you want to view the gif image multiple times. Or go to Tableau Public and click the button at the top-right corner.)

Jake and I collaborated on a dashboard. He told me that he learnt a way to create an in-place help page in Tableau. He first saw it at a conference somewhere and couldn't recall who the speaker was. So I am blogging here about it but the credit goes to somebody else. If anyone knows who the original creator is, leave a comment below.

The key idea is to float a semi transparent worksheet on top of the dashboard, where a help text box is strategically placed on top of each chart. This way, we can explain how to view each chart and what data points are important, etc. This worksheet is collapsible by a show/hide button. 

Below I would like to show how this worksheet can be constructed.

1. Sheet with a single data mark.

  • Double click the empty space in Marks panel and add two single quotes. Make the null pill a text label. This creates a single null mark.
  • Set the view as "Entire View"

2. Create an show/hide button

  • Go to the target dashboard
  • Drag a floating vertical container to the dashboard, making it cover all the area of interest.
  • Drag the Single Null Mark sheet and drop it into the above container. Hide the sheet title.
  • Create an open/close button for the container and place the button at the top-right corner.

3. Add annotations

  • Format the sheet background opacity as 70% in the layout manager             
  • Select area annotations and place them anywhere of interest. 
  • Write help text and format it to highlight important messages.  
  • The text can serve as functional guide and/or insight guide.

Here is an example. Feel free to download the workbook and explore. Click the "i" button at the top-right corner to view the in-place help. 

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