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Quick Start

InstaCharts is an online chart maker that creates charts from your spreadsheet files.

Charts can be saved as image files or shared online as interactive charts. Data from the spreadsheet can be shared as an interactive data table.

Below is an example of an embedded interactive chart.

Sign up for an account

To share a chart or save your data in the cloud, sign up for an account.

To try InstaCharts without signing up, use the demo.

Import Data

There is currently one way to import data into InstaCharts: a file upload.

Upload File

To import data into InstaCharts, upload a spreadsheet file from your computer. From the dashboard, click Add New Sheet and select a spreadsheet from your device.

Upload a spreadsheet file to the dashboard
A chart is instantly created from the uploaded spreadsheet

Many file types are supported including csv, excel, tsv, psv, open office, json and log files.

Check Data

Once the spreadsheet is uploaded, a new Sheet will be created from its processed data. Click the Data tab to view it. Column types and formatting are autodetected based on the data each contains.

Data tab View spreadsheet data on the Data Tab

Edit Chart

Click the Chart tab to switch back to the chart view. A chart was instantly made based on your spreadsheet data!

Does it show anything meaningful? Maybe not. Let’s change it.

Choose Chart Type

Use this dropdown to switch between the 9 main chart types: Line, Grouped Line, Bar, Stacked Bar, Scatterplot, Grouped Scatterplot, Area, Grouped Area & Pie

Easily switch chart types with the chart type dropdown
All chart types are recommended for the sample data

Choose Axis

After selecting a chart type, switch the data plotted in the chart by changing which spreadsheet columns are plotted per axis.

Easily switch chart types with the chart type dropdown
Easily change the data plotted on the X-Axis

  • X Axis Choose the spreadsheet column that should appear on the X (horizontal) axis. Time based columns or categorical data is typically recommended here.

  • Y Axis Choose the column that should appear on the Y (vertical) axis. Numerical data is typically recommended here.

  • Y Axis Aggregation Based on the axis selections, an additional Math dropdown may be added to the Y-Axis. Select an aggregation function to be applied to Y axis (ex: sum, count, average, etc)

  • Group Axis If a grouped chart type is selected, an additional axis will appear called Groups. Categorical data (names, categories, etc) is recommended.

Further Chart Customization

The left sidebar contains more options to further customize your chart. Edit the chart’s title and axis headings, the chart’s colors & size and limit items through the left sidebar.

The chart data can be filtered by setting column filters on the Data tab.

Multiple Charts

Need to make several charts from the same set of data? Click the Sheet menu (Spreadsheet file name) in the main toolbar, then Add Chart.

Each chart has its own set of filters applied to the data, so changing the active chart will change the filters (if any).

Next Steps