Introduction

Welcome to DataPicta, the data visualization tool for everyone! DataPicta makes it easy to create beautiful and informative charts from your data. Whether you're a data scientist, business analyst, or just someone who loves data, DataPicta has something to offer.

DataPicta is built around two main concepts: Data and Pictas. You start by adding your data to the chart, and then you visualize that data using one or more pictas (chart types).

DataPicta is an online tool, which means you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. You don't need to install any software, just open your web browser and start creating charts! The web-application is hosted at app.datapicta.com, besides the web-application you can find documentation, examples, and tutorials at www.datapicta.com, that is the website you are currently on. The website has a blue theme, whereas the web-application has a green theme.

The rest of this documentation will guide you through the web-application and explain how to use DataPicta to create stunning data visualizations. We do not recommed to read the entire documentation from start to end. When something is not clear while using the application, you should look for a an info-icon nearby that feature, clicking on the info-icon will open the relevant documentation page.

To get familiar with DataPicta we recommend you do some of the tutorials available in the tutorials section. The tutorials will guide you through the process of creating different types of charts step-by-step, its a more engaging way to learn than just reading the documentation.

Topbar

In the topbar you can find the main menu and some buttons for quick actions.

The buttons

From left to right the buttons are:

• Save chart, which allows you to save the current chart.
• Open or Publish, which allows you to open an existing chart or publish any of the saved charts.
• User account, which allows login, logout, or change your user settings.
• Documentation, which opens the documentation in a new tab (this website).

The main menu

In the main menu you can find the following options:

• New blank chart, which allows you to delete the current chart and start a new blank chart.
• Save chart, which allows you to save the current chart.
• Open or Publish, which allows you to open an existing chart or publish any of the saved charts.
• User account, which allows login, logout, or change your user settings.
• Documentation, which opens the documentation in a new tab (this website).
• Roadmap, which shows the development roadmap in a kanban board.
• Feedback, which allows you to provide feedback or report bugs.
• Contact, which allows you to contact the DataPicta team.
• Pricing, which shows pricing options for whitelabeling published charts.

Documentation for opening, saving, and publishing charts can be found in save & publish. User settings documentation can be found below. The rest is self-explanatory.

User account

You dont need an account to use DataPicta, but having an account allows you to save and publish your charts. The chart you are working on is automatically saved locally in your browser, regardless of whether you have an account or not. You can create a free account by clicking on the user icon button in the topbar or in the main menu. A dialog will open where you can sign in or create a new account. An account can be created using your email address and a password, or you can use any of the supported third-party providers to sign in.

When you are signed in, you can access your user settings by clicking on the user icon button again. In the user settings dialog you can change your user name, download a logfile containing your activity and errors. You can also logout or delete your account from here.

The user settings dialog also shows your current plan (Free, or any paid plan you may have). You can click on 'Get a subscription' to open the pricing page, where you can buy a subscription. If you already have a subscription, you can click on 'Manage subscription' to open the subscription management page, where you can change or cancel your subscription.

You only need a subscription if you want to publish charts without a backlink to DataPicta. Saving charts, and publishing charts with a backlink is always free.

Main view

The main view of DataPicta consists will show you either a datatable or the chart you are working on. You can switch between the data view and the chart view by clicking on the respective icons on the right-top of the main view. This is also done automatically when you switch between the data panel and the other panels in the sidebar.

Data view

In the data view you can see and edit the data you have added to your chart in a tabular format (a table). Depending on your screen size you will see 5, 10 or 25 rows of data at a time, you can manually override this number on the bottom of the data table.

You can also use the pagination controls at the bottom-right of the data table to navigate through your data. If you have more columns than fit on your screen, you can scroll horizontally to see the rest of the columns.

In the data view you can directly edit your data by clicking on a cell. After editing a cell, press Enter or click outside the cell to save your changes. You can also edit the field names (column headers) in the same way.

On top of every column you will find the field type, the field type can be either Text or Number represented by a 'ABC' or '123' icon respectively. Besides that text fields are always in green and number fields are blue. Fields with dates are just text fields in DataPicta, there are no date types. With applicable pictas you can parse fields with dates into date objects.

Chart view

In the chart view you can see the chart you are working on. The size of the chart depends on your screen size, but you can switch to different screen sizes by clicking on the screen size icons on the top-left of the chart view. This allows you to see how your chart looks on different devices, like desktop, tablet and mobile.

In the bottom-left corner of the chart view you see the current size of the chart in pixels (width x height), it also shows you the size in bytes of the chart (data plus settings), and the time it took to render the chart. The render time does not include any animation time. The render is measured in milliseconds (ms) on your device, so it may vary between devices. If the render time is high, you may want to optimize your chart, usually this can be done by reducing the amount of data. But this is rarely needed, as DataPicta is optimized for performance.

In the bottom-right corner of the chart view you'll find a refresh button. If your chart has animation enabled (which is the default), you may want to click this button to re-run the animation. In the rare case your chart does not render correctly, you can also click this button to force a re-render of the chart.

Sidebar

On the left side of the main view you'll find the sidebar. The sidebar contains different panels that allow you to configure your chart. The sidebar consists of the following panels:

• Data panels, where you can add, edit and manage your data.
• Picta panels, where you can configure the pictas (chart types) you have added to your chart.
• Axes panels, where you can configure the axes and optional coordinate systems of your chart.
• Canvas panels, where you can configure the canvas settings of your chart.

The documentation for each of these panels can be found by clicking on the respective links above or in the menu on the left of this page.

New panels are added to the sidebar by clicking on the 'Add Data', 'Add picta', 'Add axis' or 'Add canvas' buttons in the chart editor sidebar. A dialog will open where you can choose the type of panel you want to add. After selecting a panel type, a new panel will be added to the sidebar. The new panel will open automatically, so you can start configuring it right away.

To open any other panel in the sidebar, simply click on the panel title. This will open the panel and close any other open panel. You can only have one panel open at a time to keep the sidebar clean and easy to use.

Every panel has a title and a trash icon. The picta, axes and some canvas panels also have a duplicate icon. The picta icons also have arrow icons.

The panel title can be changed by editing the 'id' field in the panel settings. This is useful when you have multiple panels of the same type, like multiple pictas or axes. By giving them a unique id, you can easily identify them in the sidebar.

The trash icon allows you to delete the panel and all its settings from the chart. If you click the trash icon a confirmation dialog will open to prevent accidental deletion. This dialog will also inform you that other related panels may be deleted as well. For instance, if you delete a picta that is using a certain axis, that axis panel will be deleted as well if no other picta is using it.

The duplicate icon allows you to create a copy of the panel with all its settings. This is useful when you want to create a similar picta or axis without having to configure all settings from scratch.

The arrow icons in the picta panels allow you to reorder the pictas in your chart. The order of the pictas matters when pictas overlap each other. Pictas that are higher in the list are drawn on top of pictas that are lower in the list. You can use the up and down arrows to move a picta up or down in the list.

When a panel is open the header changes its background color to indicate that it is open. Closed panels have a white background. Depending on the panel type open panels have different colors:

• Data panels have a blue background.
• Picta panels have a green background.
• Axes panels have a purple background.
• Canvas panels have a brown background.