Using the Tableau Report Template

Tableau Report Template Overview

The Report template is used when you want to create a presentation or report of specific questions and cuts of the data. Think of this as creating an interactive PowerPoint deck using Tableau. This template has all the necessary elements for you to create a presentation that you can either present using the presentation mode or export to a PPT or PDF. This article will show you step by step how to use the template efficiently. The template is separated into 4 major parts, once you read the overview continue to create your first report. Your template might look slightly different since it is custom to your company but the core is still the same.

Presentation (Deck/Story)
- The presentation tab is called a Story in Tableau. This will be the final product that you will either export or present. Each colored tab on the top of the Presentation will be a slide. If you scroll to the right you will see slides with numbers on them. These numbers correspond to the New Question Number in the app. For example the New Question # 1 will be on the 1 slide and New Question number 34 will be on the slide labeled 34. This is done to save you time so that all the charts already have a slide created for them.
Dashboard (Survey Charts)
- The dashboard tab is where are generated. The Presentation tabs just reference the dashboard but each presentation tab looks at a different New Question # of the dashboard. So the presentation is just a bunch of copies of this dashboard tab. You will not have to use this tab because I have already put it in the story for you but you can use this tab to do some QA.
Title Page and Section Pages
- These will be used if you want a title page or section pages to separate your chart slides. These are all images and text.
Basic Dashboard Customization Tabs
- These tabs were covered in the Basic Template Customization article, there might be a few extra tabs to assist you but the instructions will be at the top of that sheet.

1. Update Title Page

Update the text for your title page on the first Story Point (colored boxes on top) on the presentation tab. Double click any of the text to update it or delete it, make sure to update the Story Point text n the top box as well.

2. Create Section Pages

We have created 3 styles for you to choose from to divide your report into multiple sections. These are optional so if they are not needed for this report then you can delete them. We have a colored and white background option as well as an option to import an image.

Colored and White Section Pages

Update the text in the Story point as well as the title box on top by double-clicking any text.
Click the duplicate button on the left to duplicate this slide if you want to use it again
Delete any slides you don't use or need

Tip: If you have a large report create your section pages in the beginning and move them to the beginning of each section before creating all of your question slides.

Image Section Page

Go to the Section Page Image tab at the bottom of the workbook
Click on the image and click on the dropdown arrow on the top right to edit the image
Select the image you would like to replace the current image
Go back to the Presentation Tab and then to the Section Page Image story point
The image you selected should be shown, you may change, move or delete the text box on the top right of the image
Update the Story point box text at the top

If you want to have multiple image section slides you will have a few extra steps. Follow the directions below if you need an additional image section slide.

Go to the Section Page Image tab on the bottom of your workbook, right-click and duplicate (Rename the tab by double-clicking)
On the new duplicated tab do Steps 2 and 4 above
Once you are on the Section Page Image Story point-click duplicate
Now on the duplicated story point grab the Image dashboard you renamed in Step 1 and drag it onto the middle of the page so it replaces the old Image Section Page
Repeat as many times as needed

3. Edit Question Slides

As mention above each number slide corresponded to its New Question #. You can make edits to that slide such as change the Chart Style, Segment the data using the Split Graph by option or filter that slide. You can also create different versions of this slide by clicking Duplicate on the top left and then doing the following steps.

Go to the Questions story point in the presentation tab
Click on the image on the top right of your report ( ALT + Click if not in presentation mode) to open up the question options
Select the Chart Style, Filters, and Split Graph by you would like to change
Click the X on the top right to hide the question option screen ( ALT + Click if not in presentation mode)

4. Reorder and Cleaning Slides

You can move slides by clicking and dragging, if you want to change the order of the Number Tabs we recommend using the New Question # Ordering Sort option in the Prep step to change the order in the app instead of moving the numbered. Review each of your slides to see if you need to make any changes. You can also change the Story points heights by right-clicking an unselected story point box.

5. Formatting Story Points

You have a few different formatting options for your Story Points.

Layout
1. Click Layout on the top left to change the Navigator Style
Format--> Story
1. Update Shading, Title, Navigator, and Objects

6. Sharing Options

Full-Screen Presentation Mode
1. Use this option if you want to present your story on Tableau Desktop or Tableau Online. Click on the Presentation icon on the top of the screen.
Export to PPT or PDF
1. Use this option if you want a static deck you can send. This story is optimized for PPT. When you go to the export story option for PDF make sure to use Landscape and paper size Unspecified.
Publish to Tableau Online
1. You can publish your Story to Tableau Online if it was created in Tableau Desktop. This is good to do anyway so you have a saved version on the portal.
Export to a Tableau Packaged Workbook
1. You can go to File --> Export Package Workbook to save this a TWBX file. You can then send this file to anyone and have them download Tableau Reader for free to view your story. Just be careful because all the underlying data will also be sent to them.

Tip: Removing Story Point Boxes from Exports

Below are the directions for removing the Story Point boxes from the final report.

Right-click an unselected story point box and edit the height
Enter 1 for the height
Go to all the Yellow tabs on the bottom ( title and section pages) and increase the height of each to 880 px

Tip: Only do this at the end once you have a final draft cause it's tricky getting the boxes back. You will have to click around in the white space the Story point boxes use to be until you click on that 1 px box.