Nothing beats a good graphical representation of data. You can sit down and write a very well-written explanation of what a data set represents, but if you don’t have a nice graph to show the overall result, you may have written for nothing. When it comes to desktop apps, you have great options like iWork for Mac, Office Libre for Linux, and MS Office for Windows. All of these are desktop solutions that can be used to create great graphics for documents and presentations. With online publishing, the presentation of graphics is different; You can use a chart created and exported from a desktop application, or you can use the many online tools that have been created to present better charts to an online audience. Here are three free tools that do just that and come with an embed feature.
Google spreadsheets
We usually use Google Spreadsheets to edit or create spreadsheets and nothing else, but it does have a chart feature and these charts can be embedded anywhere online. If you are going to use an online tool to create and embed charts, Google Spreadsheets is possibly one of the best options to choose because you can update a chart at any time and you have your Google Drive space to save as many charts and spreadsheets as you want. . Not many tools come with as powerful data editing and formatting features as Google Docs, so this is possibly the best option of the lot.
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ChartBlocks
ChartBlocks is an online app with both free and premium plans, which means that the number of free charts you can create with it is limited. The good thing about this app is that it creates really beautiful graphics. You have a selection of five common chart types to choose from and plenty of templates. You can import your own data and name tables as you like.
The templates mean you don’t have to worry about what colors to use, and the app has plenty of sharing options. The dimensions of a chart can be set in pixels, you can add more data, customize colors if you don’t like a theme, and much more. Where Google Spreadsheets gives you a lot of control over the data and how you can manipulate it, ChartBlocks gives you a lot of control over the appearance of the chart.
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data wrapper
Datawrapper doesn’t even require you to sign up to create and publish a chart. Its data editor isn’t the most feature-rich. You can paste data, but editing it will likely affect the app’s understanding of individual data points. You must have your data formatted correctly before pasting it into the application. With that in mind, you may be wondering why this app appears here.
Datawrapper is a great chart publishing tool if you’re citing a study. It not only allows you to customize your data points and how they are represented on a chart and supports different types of charts, but also allows you to embed the source of the data, add a description, and even highlight an element on the chart if you wish. For any academic publication, this app is pretty good.
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Bonus: Visit Vizualize.me if you want to create a resume that is an infographic of your career.
