After writing Embedding Powerpoint in a Dashboard, I figure that we can embed Excel in Tableau too.

The technique presented here gives the widely used Excel a new twist within Tableau framework. So, you can imagine that your Tableau charts and Excel charts cohabit side by side.

The key is to use Google Docs/Sheets as a proxy. Namely,
- upload your Excel file to Google Docs
- extract the file widget URL (for publishing or for collaboration)
- add the URL to a web object in dashboard

Note that, depending on your purpose, the URL is different for publishing or for collaboration. Publishing is for the whole world to see. In collaboration mode, you can set up permissions to allow only a few of your trusted parties to view or even edit.

Extracting the URL for publishing

This is the only tricky part of the process. Let's see how it works.
1.On the Excel file as Google sheet, select menu File>Publish to the Web
2.Select Embed
3.Extract the link URL

Extract the URL for collaboration

This option will allow you to set permissions for accessing the Excel report: view, comment or edit. It will show menu and login.

Here are the steps:
1.Click the share button at the top right corner.
2.View the sharing interface and copy the sharing link URL.

You are done here. But you have the option to set more permissions.
- Set permission options for sharing
- Set advanced options

Does VBA Macro work here?

Unfortunately it doesn't. So the interactivity of the Excel reports thus embedded is limited. You can always port the VBA code to Google Apps Script that works with Google sheet. But you might just spend the effort to redesign the interactivity in Tableau.

Sync with the original Excel file

By installing Google Drive on your desktop, and putting the original Excel file in it, you will be able to sync the file with the one embedded in Tableau. That is, you can edit the file on your desktop, save it and sync it. The newly edited result will show up in the Tableau viz. Sure, you need to refresh the viz before viewing it.

PS.
Embedding Excel may be useful if we want to publish existing Excel charts, tables or dashboards as they are, especially when dealing with legacy reports. Old habits die hard. As a recent example, see Zen Master Joshua Mulligan's new post: Let Them have Their Text Tables

Excel reports are still preferred by many. We have to learn to live with that. Between Tableau and Excel, it's not a zero-sum game. Rather, they are complementary in many ways.

Workbook can downloaded here.

I have long sought to embed hi-res pictures in a dashboard without much success. The first try was a bit awkward. I even created a feature request asking for it. In the beginning, all I wanted was to create a picture slide show.

The epiphany took place a few days ago, that is, embedding a Slideshare widget in Tableau. Yes, that means, we can embed a PowerPoint in any Tableau dashboard via Slideshare, if that adds to the expressiveness of your data stories. How useful is this at all? You creative souls please tell me.

The steps are:

Step 1.Upload your PowerPoint to www.slideshare.net

Step 2.Get the url for the slideshare widget
-click the share button at the lower-left corner to view the embed code.
-copy the embed code to a notepad
-extract the url and add "https://" to it.
Step 3.Add a web object to your Tableau dashboard using the above url.

Here is an example embedding 3 PPTs. Click image to download the workbook.
To embed a photo album, insert photos to a PowerPoint file first. Then upload it to Slideshare.

Full Screen Control
After embedding the widget in Tableau, the fullscreen button lost its function. To make it up, I used an image object to cover the button and link the object to the full web browser view.

Security Control
BTW, there might be certain privacy or security concerns over uploading PPT to Slideshare.net. Slideshare provides some control over the content. Each set of the slides has a privacy settings you can edit and provide limited access to the content. One can generate a private link for the presentation. Basically, it hides the content from search engines. It is not perfect, but that's the best Slideshare can do.