Innovative Tableau

Chapter 7. New Mapping Capabilities

There have been updates to map styles, layers, and even related mark types since the release of Practical Tableau. The first thing that you will notice is, as of version 2019.2, map styles are now a high-resolution vector format, right out of the box. Not only do the map tiles in the background look sharper, the panning experience is much more fluid compared to previous versions of Tableau Desktop.

Here is a default map style showing where all 5,004 orders in the Sample – Superstore sample data were placed:

There are also three new map styles available. In addition to the traditional Light, Normal, and Dark styles, authors can now use Streets, Outdoors, and Satellite styles.

To access these layers, on the menu bar at the top of the window, click Map and then click Map Layers:

Note that similar styles were previously available via an integration with Mapbox. You can still use custom map styles from Mapbox, but the Classic tab containing 14 additional styles has been sunsetted.

Note

Related: Practical Tableau, Chapter 30, “How to Make a Symbol Map with Mapbox Integration” (O’Reilly, 2018)

In addition to new map styles, there are new map layers that you can toggle on and off including Points of Interest, Subway and Train Stations, and ...