What Are Tableau Prep and Tableau Public?

Introduction

Data is essential for making smart business decisions. However, preparing data for analysis and sharing insights with the world can be challenging without the right tools. Tableau offers two powerful products to address these challenges: Tableau Prep and Tableau Public. Tableau Prep course in Chandigarh helps users clean, shape, and prepare data before analysis, while Tableau Public allows people to create and share interactive visualizations for free. Together, these tools make data more accessible and understandable. In this article, well explore what Tableau Prep and Tableau Public are, how they work, and why they might be useful for your data projects.

What Is Tableau Prep?

Tableau Prep is a data preparation tool offered by Tableau. Its main purpose is to make cleaning and organizing data easier. Many organizations deal with messy, incomplete, or inconsistent data, which makes analysis difficult. Tableau Prep provides a simple, visual interface to clean, merge, and reshape data so it can be used confidently in Tableau Desktop for analysis.

Some key features of Tableau Prep include:

• Drag-and-drop functionality to simplify workflows
  
  

• Visual steps to see how data changes in real time
  
  

• The ability to join, split, filter, and group data
  
  

• Scheduling and automation options through Tableau Prep Conductor
  
  

By using Tableau Prep, data analysts save valuable time and ensure their data is accurate and ready for reporting.

Why Use Tableau Prep?

Using Tableau Prep can improve efficiency in data projects. Instead of spending hours writing complex code or fixing data manually, you can visually interact with your data and make quick adjustments. This reduces human error and speeds up the preparation process. Another reason to use Tableau Prep is that it works smoothly with other Tableau products, allowing you to move from data preparation to visualization without leaving the Tableau ecosystem.

What Is Tableau Public?

Tableau Public is a free platform that allows anyone to create, publish, and share data visualizations online. It works similarly to Tableau Desktop, but with a focus on public sharing. With Tableau Public, you can build interactive dashboards and publish them to the web for anyone to explore.

Tableau Public is commonly used by journalists, bloggers, researchers, and students who want to share their findings with a wider audience. It provides a community gallery where people can explore other public dashboards for inspiration.

Features of Tableau Public

Some of the main features of Tableau Public include:

• Free access to build and publish visualizations
  
  

• Easy drag-and-drop functionality
  
  

• Cloud storage for your published work
  
  

• A large community gallery with thousands of public dashboards
  
  

• Embedding options for blogs and websites
  
  

Tableau Public makes data storytelling simple and engaging by giving everyone a way to share their work without expensive software licenses.

Benefits of Tableau Public

One of the biggest benefits of Tableau Public is its ability to democratize data. Anyone, even without a large budget, can explore data, create visual stories, and share them with the world. This encourages transparency and allows data-driven discussions on important topics.

Another benefit is community learning. By viewing other peoples dashboards in the Tableau Public gallery, you can learn new visualization techniques and improve your own skills.

When Should You Use Tableau Prep and Tableau Public?

• Use Tableau Prep if you need to clean, combine, or reshape complex data before creating dashboards. It is best for professionals who handle large or messy data sets regularly.
  
  

• Use Tableau Public if you want to share your visualizations with the public, especially for educational or storytelling purposes. It is ideal for students, journalists, and anyone who wants to publish data stories for free.
  
  

Both tools can also be used together you might clean your data in Tableau Prep, then build a dashboard in Tableau Desktop, and finally publish it to Tableau Public.

Conclusion

Tableau Prep and Tableau Public are valuable tools for anyone who works with data. Tableau Prep simplifies the challenging task of cleaning and preparing data, making sure it is accurate and ready for analysis. On the other hand, Tableau Public allows you to build and share stunning visual stories with a global audience. Together, these tools help you get the most from your data, no matter your industry or skill level. If you are serious about exploring data and sharing insights, learning to use both Tableau Prep and Tableau Public is a smart investment.

FAQs

Q1. Is Tableau Prep free?
No, Tableau Prep is a paid product, but it often comes with a Tableau Creator license.

Q2. Can I use Tableau Public for business dashboards?
You can, but remember that anything published on Tableau Public is visible to everyone, so it is not suitable for confidential data.

Q3. Does Tableau Prep require coding skills?
No, Tableau Prep uses a visual interface, making it easy to use without programming knowledge.

Q4. Can I download visualizations from Tableau Public?
Yes, you can download other peoples work if they allow it, and you can also export your own.

Q5. Whats the difference between Tableau Public and Tableau Desktop?
Tableau Desktop is a professional tool with more advanced features and privacy options, while Tableau Public focuses on free, public sharing.