Animated visualizations can bring data storytelling to life by revealing patterns that happen over time or emphasize dramatic events. Adding a field to the Pages shelf will show playback controls that allow you to page through each value of that field. You can do this manually, or click the Play button to watch the visualization as values change automatically.

The Chapter 11 Completed workbook contains an example that animates the hospital floorplan shown earlier. You can create the same effect by adding the Month field to the Pages shelf (as a month date value). Then watch as the circles change size month by month.

Experiment with the Show History options to see how you can view marks for previous pages.

Animations can be shared with other users of Tableau Desktop or Tableau Reader. At the time of writing, the automatic playback controls are not available for Tableau Server, Tableau Online, or Tableau Public. However, end users are able to manually page through the values.