Victoria's Notes

Using the Workbook Optimizer tool in Tableau

I'm trying to get in the habit of reviewing and cleaning data before I start working with it in Tableau. Hiding fields you'll never use probably doesn't matter so much for small datasets, but it's supposed to make a difference if you're dealing with huge amounts of data and don't want a dashboard that performs like a dead slug.

The nice thing is that Tableau has a built-in Workbook Optimizer tool that helps catch a lot of this stuff for you. Here's what you do:

  1. From the Server menu, select Run Optimizer.
  2. Expand the "Take action" and "Needs review" categories to see items that need attention.
  3. Some items may have an "autofix" option. To let Tableau fix an issue for you, select the wrench icon. If you want to explicitly ignore an item, select the cancel icon.

It's worth looking at things in the "Passed" category too, because Tableau also explains why passing a certain criteria matters, and it includes links to documentation so you can learn more.

#tableau