Install Tableau Public or Desktop

Tableau is an app for building charts and dashboards with simple drag and drop. The desktop app comes in three editions that share the same workspace, so this course works with any of them. Tableau Public (officially Tableau Desktop Public Edition): free, saves files on your computer and publishes vizzes to public.tableau.com. Tableau Desktop Free Edition: free, saves files on your computer only and can’t publish. Tableau Desktop Professional Edition: paid (Creator licence), for publishing to your company’s Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server. In this course, "Tableau Desktop" means the Free or Professional Edition. No licence from work? Start with Tableau Public; it’s also the edition used for publishing in Module 6. You need a Windows 10/11 (64-bit) PC or a Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon) with at least 4 GB of RAM, plus an internet connection.

1234 Zoom

Click a number on the picture or in this list to highlight that area.

1. 1Connect pane The list of data source types; the To a File section is for files on your computer.
2. 2Microsoft Excel Click to open an .xlsx file, such as this course’s practice file.
3. 3Open area Workbooks you’ve opened show up here; the first time, it only holds the Open a Workbook tile.
4. 4Discover pane Training videos and sample vizzes from Tableau; you can ignore it for now.

Step by step

1. 1

   Step 1: Go to tableau.com/products/public and click the download button to reach the Download Tableau Public page (or from public.tableau.com → Create → Tableau Desktop Public Edition). Enter your email (this doesn’t create an account), then pick the right installer: Windows, Mac (Intel) or Mac (Apple Silicon).

   Tip: Not sure which Mac you have? Click the Apple logo → About This Mac. Chip Apple M… means Apple Silicon; Processor … Intel means Intel.

   Watch out: Vizzes saved to Tableau Public (public.tableau.com) can be seen by anyone on the internet. Never upload confidential company data; this course’s practice file is safe to use.

2. 2

   Step 2: Run the installer. Windows: open the downloaded .exe file, tick the licence agreement, then click Install. Mac: open the .dmg file, double-click the installer inside it, then follow the prompts to the end.

   Tip: Installing needs admin rights. On a locked-down work laptop, ask your IT team for help.

   Watch out: There is no Linux or Chromebook version. On those devices you can try Web Authoring on public.tableau.com (Create → Web Authoring, free account needed); it looks similar, but some menus differ.

3. 3

   Step 3: Tableau Desktop only: for the Free Edition, fill in the form at tableau.com/products/trial/desktop, download it and install it as in step 2. On first launch, pick the free option (Use Tableau for free) and sign in with a Tableau.com account. The Professional Edition is activated with Activate with a product key or by signing in to your company’s Tableau Cloud/Server.

   Tip: Students and teachers can request a free Tableau Desktop licence for 1 year (renewable) at tableau.com/academic. Tableau decides who qualifies.

4. 4

   Step 4: Open Tableau from the Start menu (Windows) or the Applications folder (Mac). You land on the Start page: the Connect pane on the left (number 1), the Open area in the middle (number 3) and the Discover pane on the right (number 4). Find Microsoft Excel under To a File (number 2); you’ll use this link in the Connect to the Excel file lesson.

   Tip: The bottom of the Open area usually holds sample workbooks called Accelerators (Sample Workbooks in older versions). Feel free to open one and look around.

   Watch out: In Tableau Public, the To a Server section only lists web sources such as Google Drive and OData, no databases. For this course, To a File → Microsoft Excel is all you need.