Tableau

Exporting Tableau Visualizations

So you have downloaded the free trial versi​on of Tableau and created beautiful visualizations. You have two options for displaying your visualizations: interactive embeddable Tableau Public charts or static high-resolution images.

Tableau Public

Tableau Public has a free tier that comes with some limitations but allows smaller datasets to be displayed interactively as long as you do not mind making your data available to the public. You'll need to register for a Tableau Public account and download the standalone app in addition to the Tableau Desktop app that you might already have. Running your data sets through the Tableau Public app will publish them to your account and give you embeddable, interactive versions of your visualizations, like this dashboard of 2 interactive maps of San Bernardino and Riverside counties (hovering over tract subdivisions will show you relevant data).

Static High-Resolution Images with Adobe Acrobat

If all you need are static high-resolution images that you can then present on your website or in academic publications, follow these steps:

• Go to CSUSM's IITS page to install the Adobe Creative Cloud (note that you only need to install Acrobat DC, not any of the other applications available in the Cloud suite, so you can unselect everything else when given the option).

• In Tableau Desktop, right-click anywhere on the visualization you would like to export and select Copy → Image.

• In the next menu, select the options for export (normally, you will want to unselect Title and Caption) and click Copy.

• With the image copied to your clipboard, open the Adobe Acrobat app. From the menu, select File → Create → PDF from Clipboard.

• To export what you see as a high-resolution image, click ​File → Export To → Image → TIFF (or PNG if using with Weebly or Wix).

• In the pop-up menu navigate to the folder where you would like to save the image, but before clicking Save, click on Settings (to the right of the Format drop-down). At the bottom, under Resolution select 600 pixels/inch, then click OK and Save​.

• You now have a publishable quality image ready to go. Don't forget that you can also always change the font sizes and colors in Tableau before you export the image so as to make it readable and accessible. Happy visualizing!