Why this matters
Your VP wants weekly revenue by region in front of them by 9am Monday, and wants to filter to one product line without emailing you. You have a CSV export and no budget for software.
Tableau Desktop Public Edition is free. In this module you connect the CSV, build a revenue-by-region bar chart, give the viewer a product filter and put it all on a one-page dashboard.
What you’ll build
A Tableau workbook with a "Revenue by region" bar chart (East $313, West $269 with the sample data), a Product filter the viewer controls and a dashboard holding both.
You will also know where publishing lives (File › Save to Tableau Public) and why anything you publish there should be sample data: Tableau Public workbooks are visible to anyone.
What you need
- The sample CSVFour rows of made-up sales: order date, region, store, product, units and revenue.
- Tableau Desktop Public Edition, to do it for realFree for Windows and Mac. Install the Public Edition, not the Free Edition, which cannot publish to Tableau Public.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Dimensions make bars, measures make their height
Tableau sorts your columns into dimensions (things you group by, like Region and Product) and measures (numbers you add up, like Revenue and Units).
Region on Columns is a blue, discrete pill, so it makes one header and one bar per region. Revenue on Rows is green and continuous, so it makes the axis: SUM(Revenue).
A filter the viewer controls
Drag Product to the Filters card. The dialog opens with nothing ticked, so click All, then OK. Right-click the Product pill and choose Show Filter so viewers can use it.
A sheet holds one chart. A dashboard holds one or more sheets, and the filter comes along when you drag the sheet onto it.
Public means public
File › Save to Tableau Public publishes the workbook to your free profile, and anyone can see it. The Public Edition is not licensed for commercial work, so practice with sample data.
Tableau Public refreshes Google Sheets data about every 24 hours, but not CSV files. For a weekly report, connect to a Google Sheet or re-save each week under the same name.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- regional-sales.csvThe four-row sample data used in the practice.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. To get one bar per region, Region goes on…
- Columns
- Filters
- Tooltip
Show the answer
Columns. A dimension on Columns makes one header and one bar per value.
2. Where is the command that publishes your workbook to Tableau Public?
- File › Save to Tableau Public
- File › Export as PDF
- Dashboard › New Dashboard
Show the answer
File › Save to Tableau Public. In Tableau Desktop Public Edition 2026 publishing is under File (older versions had it under Server).
3. Why practice with sample data in Tableau Public?
- It is faster
- Anything published to Tableau Public can be seen by anyone
- Real data does not load
Show the answer
Anything published to Tableau Public can be seen by anyone. Tableau Public workbooks are public, and the Public Edition is not for commercial work.
A simple dashboard from your data
You have a chart and a dashboard. Next: build a simple dashboard app with a login from your own data, using Lovable.
Start module 5 →