Summary

With version 10.5, Tableau introduced a new data engine, Hyper, and included a long-awaited feature, the Viz in Tooltip. The 2018 releases have nothing to be ashamed of, in comparison! Every release brings a lot of new features and improvements.

In Tableau Desktop, with the multiple table schema and the spatial Join, you can create better Data Sources with improved performances. Visualizing the data has also improved considerably, with the new Density Marks type, step and jump lines, Worksheet transparency, and many more improvements for Dual Axis map, hierarchy filters, and nested sorts. 

The most notable new features concern Dashboards. The ability to download and add extensions developed by Tableau and their partners from the Extension Gallery provides tons of new uses for Tableau. A few of the Tableau user dreams have already come true, thanks to the extensions. Also, you can develop your extensions to create the interactions that meet your needs. That's just one new feature! The navigation button and action, the update set value action, the automatic Mobile layout, and the grid, are some of the other features that will have huge impacts on building a Dashboard.

Tableau Server was not left out! A new browsing experience, a Mobile layout preview, and improved comments are now available when you interact with Tableau Server. Administrators also have some great new ways to perform their work, with the TSM allowing them to manage the server from a web page. However, the biggest change has come with the 2018.1 version and the ability to connect to data directly from a browser.

2018 was a great year for Tableau users and the Tableau community. This first chapter, which described the new features, is now over. If you learned how to use Tableau with this book, I hope that this chapter has provided you with a greater desire to use Tableau. If you started with this chapter, you must already know about Tableau. However, I'm sure this book has more to teach you (and that's surely why you purchased it), so don't hesitate to continue reading: read the tips, try the tutorials, and learn more about Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, and the Tableau community.