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Module 06 · Publish & share

Share & update data

Share a link or embed code, control downloads, and update the data.

Step by step6 minLesson 21 of 21 Free

Once your viz is online, there are three things to set. The first two are on your viz page at public.tableau.com: how to share it (link or embed code) and its permissions (shown on your profile or not, downloadable or not). The third is keeping the data current. Remember: Excel data on Tableau Public doesn’t update by itself.

Illustration of a browser at public.tableau.com: the Sales Dashboard viz page with its title, owner name and view count; the Share window with Embed Code and Link boxes and Copy buttons; the Settings menu with the Show Viz on Profile and Allow Access switches. On the right, a Tableau Cloud window with the Refresh Extracts dialog: Schedule a Refresh, Full refresh, Daily, at 7:00 AM. Zoom
Left: your viz page at public.tableau.com. Right: a refresh schedule in Tableau Cloud, a Tableau Cloud/Server feature (Desktop Professional), not a Tableau Public one.

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

Step by step

  1. Step 1: Open your viz on public.tableau.com (number 4). The browser usually opens it right after publishing; if not, sign in, open your profile from the account icon at the top right, then click the viz. Click the Share icon in the toolbar below the viz (number 1), then click Copy Link to copy a link to send by chat or email, or Copy Embed Code to put the viz on a website or blog.

    Tip: Recipients need no Tableau account or app. The link opens in an ordinary browser, phones included, and the viz stays interactive.

  2. Step 2: Click the Settings icon (gear, number 2). Show Viz on Profile controls whether the viz appears on your profile. Allow Access (its description reads “Let others download or make a copy of this viz”) controls whether others may download the workbook or make a copy of it.

    Watch out: Turning off Show Viz on Profile only moves the viz to the Hidden tab on your profile; anyone with the link can still open it. With Allow Access on, others can download the workbook with its data, hidden sheets included. Turning it off doesn’t make the data private either.

  3. Step 3: Update the data. On Tableau Public, Excel data does not update by itself and there’s no refresh schedule. Save your changes in the original Excel file, open your workbook in the Tableau app, then choose Data → [data source name] → Refresh (the data source name is the one shown at the top of the Data pane; if the source is an extract, choose Data → [data source name] → Extract → Refresh). Once the dashboard numbers change, click File → Save to Tableau Public (or Save to Tableau Public As... with the same title, Sales Dashboard) so the online version is overwritten.

    Tip: Only Google Sheets data (through the Google Drive connector) can sync automatically, roughly once a day: tick the Keep my data in sync... option when you save to Tableau Public. A refresh schedule for other data exists only in Tableau Cloud/Server (Desktop Professional): Schedule a Refresh (number 3), via the Explore page → tick the workbook → Actions → Refresh Extracts. On Tableau Cloud, data stored on a computer or the office network also needs Tableau Bridge.

    Watch out: Numbers unchanged after Refresh? If you opened a .twbx file, Tableau uses the old copy of the data packed inside it. Open the Data Source tab, click the small arrow next to the connection name → Edit Connection, pick the latest Excel file, then refresh again.