Tableau Software today announced the availability of Tableau Reader, a free software application that enables anyone to view, interact with and print analyses and dashboards created in Tableau Desktop. The company also announced today the addition of more than 25 free “Visual Example” analytical workbooks viewable with Tableau Reader.

“Tableau Reader made an instant and dramatic improvement in how we distribute reports and analytics,” said Dan Murray, VP and CIO of Blastrac, a global manufacturer of surface preparation equipment. “Not only can people use richer analytics and drill down into trends and patterns for their area, but they can see better, more easy-to-understand visuals. As a result, we’re all understanding emerging issues sooner and solving them faster. Because Reader is free and easy to use, I can stretch my IT dollar and make it available to everyone in the company, from the CEO’s office down to the manufacturing floor.”

Tableau Reader, available for Microsoft Windows systems, is a no-cost way for Tableau customers to extend the knowledge they gain from using Tableau Desktop analytics to their entire organization and beyond. More compelling than simply sharing PDFs, exported graphic files or static images, Tableau Reader allows anyone using the software to interact with a workbook in the following ways:

-- Filter relevant data

-- Zoom in and out and pan across visualizations

-- Copy images, cross-tabs and data

-- Print or export

-- Link to relevant Web sites and URLs

-- Follow guided paths between views

The Tableau Web site now has an expanded gallery of Visual Examples. The workbooks demonstrate the meaningful and visually compelling visualizations users can create with Tableau Desktop. The gallery features analyses depicting population growth, sales pipeline trends, geographic analysis, hurricane trends, HR and personnel reporting, global warming affects, survey analysis, economic data, investment performance and consumer financial services. All are viewable with Tableau Reader; peope with Tableau Desktop can download the workbooks to create their own visualizations.

“Why distribute a static report when you can share a live, interactive analytical experience?” said Christian Chabot, Tableau Software CEO. “By introducing a free Reader, Tableau is once again revolutionizing analytics. The days of expensive and difficult-to-use business intelligence software are finally coming to end. Analytics packages like Tableau – that are easy, fast, powerful, beautiful and affordable – are transforming the way companies interact with their data.”