Clipboard Data Sources

Sometimes you want to pull in data from an outside source for some quick analysis. Rather than create a whole data source and then connect in Tableau, you can copy and paste the data directly into the application. Tableau automatically creates a data source that you can begin analyzing. When you save the workbook, the data source is saved as a tab delimited text file into your Tableau Repository.

You can copy and paste data from a variety of office applications including Microsoft Excel and Word. You can also copy and paste html tables from webpages. Tables that are copied as comma separated values or tab delimited can be pasted into Tableau. Please be aware that not all applications use these formats when copying.

1. Select the data you want and copy it to the clipboard.
   
   
   
2. Open Tableau Desktop and select Data > Paste Data.
   
3. Select File > Save to save the data source. When you save the workbook the data source is automatically put into your repository. If you save as a packaged workbook the data sources is saved with the workbook instead.