Sparklines - Easier Than I Thought

I recently had to look at a lot of data categories as their values moved through time. I wanted to embed these graphs in a Word document to succinctly and effectively provide visual context to my discussion points. I originally thought I would use one graph with multiple color-encoded lines but realized that it would not be very effective in my document. There were too many lines overlapping each other and you couldn't really discern what was happening for each category.

I remembered what Edward Tufte and Stephen Few recommend - sparklines - and used Tableau to create them quickly and easily.

Tableau 4.0 Now Available - Mapping & Embedding Just 2 of the Major New Features

Tableau's 4.0 release is now available! This is no doubt one of our most significant releases. New features include one-click analytical map creation, usability enhancements to help both new and long-time users, and capabilities to embed and share live Tableau views with other applications such as Web applications, intranets and documents. Tableau 4.0 is available for download and a "new features" website has all the details.

EagerEyes Blog Lists Top 10 Information Visualization Influences on Tableau’s Jock Mackinlay

I love it when people much more knowledgeable than I give me inside views into what shaped them. It’s fascinating to see what influenced them as they developed into the industry experts we know. EagerEyes.org, a terrific blog with lots of resources on information visualization, recently asked Tableau’s own Dr. Jock Mackinlay to name his top 10 influences.

Online videos of Stephen Few and Pat Hanrahan keynotes at Tuesday's Tableau Conference

Check out our on-the-spot video recordings of keynote speakers from Day Two (Tuesday, July 22) of Tableau's first ever Customer Conference. They include videos of Stephen Few and Pat Hanrahan.

Online videos of Monday's keynotes - nearly live and in person

Check out our on-the-spot video recordings of keynote speakers from Day One (Monday, July 20)...

+ Christian Chabot assesses where analytics has been and is going, highlights key capabilities of Tableau 4.0 and shares his vision of Tableau's future. Watch the video - about 45 minutes.

+ Chris Stolte, along with 3 of Tableau's key developers, showcases and demos the new capablities of Tableau 4.0 real-time. Watch the video - about 45 minutes.

Customers Learning While We Learn From Customers

Nearly 200 of our best customers are here in Seattle at the Tableau Customer Conference with us enjoying the fine weather and learning about upcoming release, Tableau 4.0. We're at maximum capacity. Here are three interactions I had with customers where I discovered something new about how analyics are proliferating.

Tableau Customer Conference Sold Out!

Wow - it was a very busy June. Thanks to our fantastic customers, the generous people who've agreed to speak and a great Seattle location, we've sold out attendance at the first-ever Tableau Customer conference! We expect an amazing event July 20-22, from the opening cocktail reception Sunday to the closing lunch Tuesday. While all the details are available at www.tableaucustomerconference.com, highlights of the conference include:

A Winning 10 Days - Tableau Software Honored by Recent 2 Award Wins and 1 Nomination

Gary Player, a great golfer of the 1960's and 70's, once said "The harder I work, the luckier I get". Tableau just had some good luck based on the hard work of our development team (who work hard to listen to customers). In the last 10 days, we were honored to win or be finalists for 3 different awards. In addition to winning the Network Products Guide Award for Product Innovation in Business Intelligence, we were selected as a finalist for the American Business Awards (the "Stevies"). And, just Tuesday we learned we won a CODiE award for Best Business Intelligence/Knowledge Management solution.

Reminder - Earlybird Registration Closes Today for the Tableau Customer Conference

Just a quick reminder to Tableau Software customers. Today is the last day to earn the "early bird" discount for our first ever Customer Conference. It's just just 10 weeks away - July 20-22 here in Seattle at the Edgewater Hotel. Registrations so far have been very brisk so register today to guarantee your spot. You can get the early bird promotional code from your account manager or email us and we'll contact you.

We've added a slew of best practices and hands-on training sessions (check out our website for session descriptions). For example:

Learning by Example - Real Data Visualizations with Real Data Now Available

If you're like most people, one way you like to learn new stuff is by example. So recently several people at Tableau Software put together over 40 different examples of data visualizations based on many different types of data. Each is accompanied by a Tableau packaged workbook which contains additional visualizations and the data behind them. Everything is available as free downloads.