How to Export Dashboard in Tableau

Your Tableau dashboard is complete, filled with powerful charts and insights, and now it’s time to share it with your team, executives, or clients. Getting those visuals out of Tableau and in front of the right people is a crucial final step. This guide will walk you through the various ways to export your Tableau dashboard, from creating static images for presentations to exporting the raw data for deeper analysis.

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Why Export Your Tableau Dashboard?

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." Your reason for exporting will determine the best file format and method to use. Common scenarios include:

• Sharing with non-Tableau users: Your audience may not have a Tableau license, so sending them a file they can easily open, like an image or PDF, is essential.
• Including visuals in reports and presentations: You’ll likely want to embed your dashboard views into PowerPoint presentations, Google Slides, or Word documents.
• Creating a snapshot in time: Sometimes you need to capture a specific set of data at a particular moment for archival purposes or to track historical performance.
• Printing a hard copy: For meetings or physical reports, exporting a high-quality, printable version of your dashboard is key.

Understanding your goal will help you choose the right export method from the options below.

Method 1: Exporting a Static Image of Your Dashboard

The quickest way to share a view of your dashboard is by exporting it as an image file. This is perfect for dropping into presentation slides or an email update. Tableau supports several image formats, each with its own benefits:

• PNG (Portable Network Graphics): This is usually the best choice. PNGs offer high quality, support transparent backgrounds (which is great for overlays), and are web-friendly.
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): JPEGs are good when file size is a major concern. They use compression to create smaller files but may result in a slight loss of quality, especially with sharp lines and text.
• BMP (Bitmap): A BMP file is an uncompressed, high-quality image format. It results in a very large file size and is generally only used when you need the highest possible fidelity for printing.

Step-by-Step: How to Export as an Image

From Tableau Desktop, the process is straightforward:

1. Make sure the dashboard you want to export is the active view in your workbook.
2. From the top menu, navigate to Dashboard > Export Image...
3. A dialog box will appear. Here, you can name your file, choose where to save it, and select the file type (PNG, BMP, or JPEG).
4. Click Save, and you're done!

If you are using Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, you can find a "Download" button in the toolbar. Clicking this will give you an "Image" option, which achieves the same result.

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Pro-Tip: Getting the Resolution Right

Have you ever exported a Tableau dashboard as an image only to find it looks blurry or pixelated when you use it? This is a common issue. Tableau exports the image based on the dimensions of the dashboard container on your screen.

To create a higher-resolution image, you need to adjust the dashboard's dimensions before exporting. In the Dashboard pane (usually on the left), under Size, switch the setting from "Fixed Size" to a specific pixel dimension. For example, if you want a standard 16:9 HD image, you could set the dimensions to 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high. Once you've set the size, the dashboard will redraw itself in that container. Now, when you export it as an image, you'll get a crisp, high-resolution file perfect for full-screen presentations.

Method 2: Exporting Your Dashboard as a PDF

Exporting to PDF is your best bet for formal reports, documentation, or creating a print-ready version of your work. A PDF preserves your dashboard's layout, fonts, and colors, ensuring it looks the same on any device. It's universally readable and can contain multiple pages, making it ideal for exporting entire workbooks.

Step-by-Step: How to Export as a PDF

The process gives you several options to customize the output to your exact needs:

1. Navigate to the top menu and select File > Print to PDF.... This will open the PDF export configuration window.
2. Inside the "Print to PDF" window, you have several important settings:
3. Once you've configured your settings, click OK, choose your save location, and name the file.

Tip: Handling Dashboards with Scroll Bars

One of the most common frustrations when exporting to PDF is dealing with dashboards that don't fit on a single screen and require a scroll bar. If you export a "scrolling" dashboard, Tableau will only capture the visible portion, cutting off everything below the fold.

The solution is to tell Tableau to render the entire dashboard at once. To do this:

1. In the Dashboard pane on the left, find the Size section.
2. If your dashboard has a fixed height, temporarily increase it to a very large number (e.g., 3000 pixels) until the scroll bar disappears. The canvas will expand to show all your content.
3. Alternatively, you can change the setting from "Fixed size" to "Unspecified" for a moment, which tells Tableau to dynamically size the dashboard to fit all content.
4. Now, when you go to File > Print to PDF..., Tableau will see the entire dashboard and format it correctly across multiple pages or scale it down to fit one, with no content getting cut off.

Method 3: Exporting the Underlying Data (Crosstab)

Sometimes, your audience wants more than a picture - they need the raw numbers to perform their own analysis. Tableau makes it easy to export data from any worksheet on your dashboard to a crosstab format, which can be opened in Excel or Google Sheets.

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Step-by-Step: How to Export Data to Excel/CSV

You can't export the data for an entire dashboard at once, but you can export it for any individual worksheet that makes up your dashboard.

1. First, click on the specific chart or table within your dashboard from which you want to export the data. This will highlight it.
2. From the top menu, navigate to Worksheet > Export > Crosstab to Excel. This will instantly generate an Excel file with the summarized data from your chart. The columns and rows in the spreadsheet will match the structure of your visualization.
3. Alternatively, you can choose Worksheet > Export > Data.... This option opens the "View Data" window, giving you two tabs:

Viewers of dashboards published to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud can use the Download button and choose "Crosstab" or "Data" to perform the same function directly in their browser.

Method 4: Sharing an Interactive Dashboard

Static images and PDFs are great, but the true magic of Tableau lies in its interactivity - tooltips, filters, and drill-downs that let users explore the data for themselves. There are a few ways to share an interactive experience without requiring your audience to have a full Tableau Desktop license.

Tableau Reader (for .twbx files)

Tableau Reader is a free desktop application anyone can download. It allows users to open and interact with Tableau Packaged Workbooks (files with a .twbx extension).

To create one, go to File > Export Packaged Workbook... in Tableau Desktop. This bundles your dashboard, worksheets, and a snapshot of the data source into a single self-contained file. You can then email this .twbx file to anyone. As long as they have Tableau Reader installed, they can open it, apply filters, hover over marks, and navigate the dashboard just like you can. The one key limitation is that the data is not live, it's a snapshot from the time you created the package.

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Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a free platform where you can publish and share your visualizations with the world. You can upload a workbook, and Tableau Public gives you a unique link that you can share. This is great for public-facing data journalism, personal portfolio projects, or non-sensitive business data. The significant caveat is in its name: anything you publish here is publicly accessible. Never use Tableau Public for confidential or proprietary company information.

Tableau Server / Tableau Cloud

This is the standard solution for most organizations. You publish your finalized dashboard from Tableau Desktop to your company’s secure Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud environment. Once published, you can share a simple web link with your stakeholders. They can access the live, fully interactive dashboard directly in their web browser without needing any special software. The data can be set to refresh on a schedule, ensuring everyone is always looking at the most current information.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to export from Tableau gives you the flexibility to share insights in the format that best suits your audience and their needs. Whether you're creating a quick PNG for a presentation, a detailed PDF for a report, an Excel file for deeper analysis, or sharing a link to a live, interactive dashboard, you now have the tools to get your hard work seen and acted upon.

While mastering exports in a tool like Tableau is valuable, we’ve found that the core goal isn't just about sending a static file - it’s about answering questions and sharing insights easily. We built Graphed because the cycle of exporting reports every time someone asks a new question can quickly consume hours of your week. By connecting your marketing and sales data sources one time, you can use plain English to build dashboards in seconds, ask follow-up questions to drill down into the details, and share live reports that are always up-to-date, removing the need for constant manual exports.