With Tableau, we can create maps. All we need to do is drag geographic data to our worksheet and Tableau will do its best to recognize the data and create our map.

To illustrate, let’s use the dataset that comes with Tableau. Drag the State/Province field to the worksheet.

To fill in the states with color, in the Marks card, click the drop-down (where it says Automatic) and choose Map. To add the regions and code them with color, drag the Region to the Color mark.

You can change the colors to what you prefer. Click on the Color mark and choose the Edit Colors… button. The following dialog appears. First choose your category on the left and then choose a color on the right. There are many different palettes to choose from if you click the drop-down.

Tableau recognizes geographic data. This means that when you drag geographic data on to the worksheet, Tableau creates a map. What types of geographic data does Tableau recognize? Tableau can recognize area codes, CBSA, MSA codes, city, congressional districts, country, region, county, state or province and zip code or post codes. Tableau can also recognize latitude and longitude data as well.

To further customize our map, let’s change our map type to circle and then track our Sales field to our Size mark. We now have a map showing different size of circles representing the amount of sales and regions across color. Let’s make our circles bigger so they are easier to see. Click on Size in the Marks card and