Innovative Tableau

Chapter 29. 3 Ways to Make Magnificent Maps: Tip 2

In addition to the features covered in Chapter 7, one of my favorite mapping features added since the release of Practical Tableau is the ability to create custom territories. In the Sample – Superstore dataset that comes with Tableau, you will see a dimension called Region that contains custom territories, but that dimension is a field in the underlying data. Now you can create a similar field just by lassoing geographic dimension members on a map view!

How to Make Maps with Custom Territories

For the following illustration, we again use the CSV file containing a list of my 10 favorite barbecue restaurants introduced in Chapter 28. To begin the map this time, I placed the Longitude measure on the Columns Shelf, Latitude measure on the Rows Shelf, and the Zip Code dimension on the Detail Marks Card. I’ve also changed the mark type to Map to create a filled map showing which zip codes include at least one of my favorite barbecue restaurants and I have filtered out Playfair Data’s address:

Now, suppose that we want to consolidate the eight zip codes represented into two custom territories: Southwest and Northeast. To begin, access the map controls by hovering over the map. When the controls appear in the upper-left corner ...