How to Publish a Report in Tableau

Building a powerful visualization in Tableau Desktop is just the first step, the real value comes when you share those insights with your team, clients, or stakeholders. Publishing your report makes it accessible, interactive, and automatically up-to-date for everyone who needs it. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from preparing your workbook to configuring the final permissions and publishing options.

Before You Publish: Understanding Your Options

Tableau offers three primary environments where you can host and share your interactive reports. Where you publish depends on your organization's infrastructure, budget, and security needs.

Tableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online)

Tableau Cloud is a fully hosted, cloud-based solution managed by Tableau (Salesforce). You simply upload your workbooks, and Tableau handles all the server maintenance, security updates, and infrastructure management. This is the simplest and most popular choice for teams that want to get started quickly without dedicating IT resources to managing a server.

• Best for: Teams of any size who want a hassle-free, secure, and scalable environment without needing to manage their own hardware.

Tableau Server

Tableau Server is a self-hosted option. Your organization installs, manages, and maintains the Tableau Server software on your own infrastructure, whether it's on-premises or through a cloud provider like AWS or Azure. This gives you complete control over your data, security configurations, and server performance, but it also requires technical expertise and resources to manage.

• Best for: Large enterprises with strict data governance policies, specific hardware requirements, or dedicated IT teams capable of managing the server environment.

Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a free platform where anyone can publish and explore interactive data visualizations. It's a fantastic resource for building a professional portfolio, sharing data journalism projects, or participating in the data visualization community. The key thing to remember is that anything published here is, as the name suggests, public. Anyone on the internet can see and even download your work and its underlying data.

• Best for: Students, analysts, and hobbyists working with non-sensitive, public data who want to share their skills and insights with a global audience. Never use this for confidential company information.

Preparing Your Workbook for Publication

Taking a few minutes to clean up your workbook before publishing can make a huge difference in how your audience understands and interacts with your report. It's like tidying up a room before having guests over - it creates a much better experience.

1. Clean Up Worksheets and Dashboards

Your workbook might be full of scratchpad worksheets and half-finished ideas. Before publishing, hide these unused sheets. Make sure every dashboard, worksheet, and story you do publish has a clear, descriptive name. "Q3 Sales Performance" is far more helpful than "Dashboard 12." This makes navigation intuitive for your viewers.

2. Decide on Your Data Connection: Live vs. Extract

This is one of the most important decisions you'll make before publishing because it determines how your dashboard gets updated data.

• Live Connection: A live connection queries your database directly. Every time a user interacts with a filter or refreshes the view, Tableau sends a new query to the data source. This is great for real-time data but can be slow if your underlying database is not optimized for performance.
• Extract (.hyper file): An extract is a compressed, highly optimized snapshot of your data at a point in time. When you publish a workbook with an extract, you are publishing the data with the report. You can then schedule the extract to refresh on a regular basis (e.g., daily, hourly). Extracts typically result in much faster dashboard performance, as Tableau isn't waiting on a remote database.

Recommendation: For most scenarios, especially for reports on Tableau Cloud or Server, using an extract and scheduling a refresh provides the best balance of data freshness and performance.

3. Set Initial Dashboard States and Filters

Think about the first thing you want your audience to see. Adjust your filters, parameters, and views to the most common or insightful starting point before you save the workbook and publish. Your end-users can adjust filters once they’re in the report, but by setting a logical initial view, the dashboard becomes clearer upon first open, enhancing the user experience.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Publish a Report in Tableau

Once your workbook is prepped and ready, the publishing process is straightforward. We'll use the example of publishing to Tableau Cloud or Server, as the process is nearly identical.

Step 1: Save Your Packaged Workbook (.twbx)

While not strictly required, saving your file as a Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx) is a great practice. A .twbx file bundles your original workbook (.twb) along with any data extracts, images, and other local files. It ensures your visualization will display correctly without any missing components once published.

Go to File > Save As and select "Tableau Packaged Workbook (*.twbx)" from the dropdown.

Step 2: Sign In to Your Tableau Server or Cloud

Inside Tableau Desktop, you need to connect to the environment where you plan to publish your report.

1. Navigate to the top menu and click Server.
2. In the dropdown, select Sign In.
3. A dialog box will appear. Enter the URL for your Tableau Server or click the Tableau Cloud link if you are publishing there.
4. You'll be prompted to enter your credentials (username and password) to log in.

Step 3: Begin the Publishing Process

Once you are successfully signed in, it's time to publish.

1. Go back to the top menu and select Server.
2. Click on Publish Workbook...

This will open the "Publish Workbook" dialog box, where you'll configure all the key options for how your report will be shared.

Step 4: Configure Your Publishing Options

This dialog is command central for publishing. Let’s break down the most important settings.

Project, Name, and Description

• Project: Projects are like folders for organizing your work on Tableau Server/Cloud. Choose the appropriate project where the report should live.
• Name: Confirm or edit the name of your published workbook. This is the title users will see on the server.
• Description: Add a brief description explaining what the dashboard shows. This context is helpful for your colleagues. You can also add tags to make it easier to search for.

Sheets and Sharing Options

• Sheets: Click the "Edit" button to select which specific worksheets, dashboards, or stories you want to make visible. You can deselect all the "work-in-progress" sheets and only publish the final, polished dashboards.
• Show sheets as tabs: Check this box if you want users to be able to navigate between different dashboards and worksheets using tabs at the top of the viewing screen. This is recommended for most multi-dashboard workbooks.

Permissions

This is critical for controlling who can see and interact with your report. Click "Edit" next to Permissions. You can set rules for specific users or groups. Common permission levels include:

• Viewer: Can see the workbook and interact with filters, but cannot create new views or save customizations.
• Editor: Can open content and author new content from that workbook in a web-based environment.
• Administrator: Has full control over the workbook, ensuring data integrity and accessibility.

By default, permissions are often inherited from the Project. You can set custom permissions for your specific workbook if needed.

Data Sources

This setting controls how your workbook connects back to its data once published. Click "Edit."

• Authentication: Specify how applications will log into the data source to run queries. Choose to embed the database password in the connection for ease of use, or require each user to enter their credentials.
• Refresh Schedule (for Extracts): Set an automated refresh schedule for data extracts. Options can include daily or weekly refreshes as dictated by your organization’s needs and IT policies.

Step 5: Click Publish!

Once you've configured all the settings, simply hit the blue Publish button at the bottom of the dialog. Tableau will package, upload, and process your workbook. A few moments later, your default web browser will open with your newly published, interactive report, live and ready to be shared!

Final Thoughts

Publishing your reports in Tableau transforms your static analyses into dynamic, shareable resources for your entire organization. By taking the time to carefully prepare your workbook and configure your sharing options, you can ensure that your audience gets immediate, performant, and secure access to critical insights, all while the data updates automatically in the background.

The layers of configuration in traditional BI tools, from managing refresh schedules to setting server permissions, highlight a lot of the friction that keeps teams from easily accessing their own data. We built Graphed to be the opposite of that experience. You connect your data sources like Google Analytics or HubSpot in just a few clicks, describe the dashboard you want in plain English, and have a live, shareable report in seconds - no need to configure a server, set up an extract, or manage permissions. It's built to give you the answers you need so you can focus on growing your business.