One category per row, one number each
Ranked barsRevenue by region · votes by party · traffic by source
Length is the easiest visual quantity to compare precisely. Sort by value unless the categories have a natural order.
Excel & CSV to infographicYour columns already
Your columns already
know what they are.
Upload the workbook. The shape of the data decides the chart, the header row decides the labels, and the sheet comes back with the figure that matters set large enough to read across a room.
Upload a spreadsheetXLSX and CSV · free to try · no formulas required
regions-2026.xlsx
| Region | Revenue (£m) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| North | 18.4 | +22% |
| South | 14.1 | +9% |
| Midlands | 11.7 | +14% |
| Scotland | 6.2 | −3% |
| Wales | 4.0 | +6% |
becomes
Revenue by region
The North carried the year
- North£18.4m
- South£14.1m
- Midlands£11.7m
- Scotland£6.2m
- Wales£4.0m
Illustrative · source: regions-2026.xlsx
The decision behind every chart
Which chart your columns are asking for
This is the rule the generator follows, written out so you can overrule it when you know something about the data that the data does not say.
Parts that add up to a whole
Donut or stacked barBudget split · market share · device mix
Only when the parts genuinely total 100% and there are five or fewer of them. Six slices and it becomes a colour-matching exercise.
A value measured at regular intervals
LineMonthly signups · yearly emissions · weekly sales
The slope carries the meaning. Never start the axis above zero on a line meant to show growth — it manufactures a trend.
Two options against the same rows
Comparison tablePlan A vs Plan B · us vs the market · before vs after
Cheaper to read than two charts side by side, because the reader’s eye travels along one row instead of between two pictures.
One number against a target
Progress bar with the figure set largeProgress to goal · capacity used · completion rate
A single percentage does not need a chart at all — it needs to be big, with the target stated beside it.
Events with dates attached
TimelineProduct milestones · policy changes · a company history
Space the entries by importance, not by exact elapsed time, unless the gaps themselves are the story.
More on this in the chart maker and in the full chart-choosing guide.
Five minutes of tidying doubles the result
None of this is specific to us — a spreadsheet laid out this way behaves better in every tool that will ever read it, including next year’s you.
- Rule 1
One header row, at the top
Not a title, a logo and three blank rows first. The first row it meets should be the column names.
- Rule 2
One thing per column
“Q1 2026 revenue (USD)” is one column. Revenue and margin sharing a column with a slash in between is two.
- Rule 3
Units in the header, not the cells
“Revenue (£m)” beats writing £ in four hundred cells, and it means the chart can label its axis properly.
- Rule 4
No merged cells across data
Merged cells are a layout device. They destroy the row-and-column meaning everything downstream depends on.
- Rule 5
Say what the sheet is about
A sentence of context alongside the upload — “quarterly revenue by region, 2024 to 2026” — is the difference between a correct headline and a generic one.
Spreadsheet questions
Which spreadsheet formats can I upload?
Excel workbooks and CSV files, alongside PDFs, Word documents and plain text. If your data lives in Google Sheets, export it as CSV or XLSX first.
Do I need to have made the chart already?
No. Uploading raw columns is the intended path — the chart type is chosen from the shape of the data. If you already have a chart in the workbook, it is the underlying numbers that get used, not the picture.
What if my spreadsheet has a hundred rows?
It gets summarised rather than plotted in full. A hundred bars is a wall, not a chart. Expect the top handful ranked, with the remainder grouped — and if you want a different cut, say which column to rank by.
Can it handle several sheets in one workbook?
Yes, though results are better when you say which sheet matters. A workbook with a data tab, a working tab and a pivot tab has three different opinions about what the numbers are.
Will it do calculations for me?
It reads what is in the cells, including the results of your formulas. It is not a substitute for your own modelling — do the maths in the spreadsheet, and let the sheet present the answer.
Can I keep the same look across a set of charts?
Yes. Save a brand kit and every piece is drawn in the same palette, so a set of six figures for one report look like they belong to the same report.
Stop screenshotting cells into slides
Upload the file and get something you would be happy to put in front of a board.
Upload a spreadsheet