Learn Flourish fundaments - step by step tutorial

Resources to follow along
Find the data to follow along with this chart here.

If your company blocks Google Sheets, you can also copy the data from the completed chart. Click here and click Duplicate and edit. Next, go to the data tab and copy the data.

Part One

Choosing a template and adding data

1

The Template Chooser

From your project page, select your chart type by clicking the blue button labeled Create New Visualization. From there, you will be taken to the Template Chooser. Here you can scroll through the different types of templates Flourish offers, such as Pie, Line, Maps, and Hierarchy.

If you are unsure what type of template to use, you can use the Purpose filter. You can filter by purpose, such as Change over time, or by type, such as Small multiples.

For additional help on selecting the right template for your data, see this help document.

For this exercise, select the bar chart to get started.
 

2

Adding data to Flourish

After selecting the bar chart template, you will be taken to the template editor. Each template contains sample data, which can be seen here.

Click on the Data tab to view details on how the data should be formatted to work properly within this template. For this bar chart, you need a column for labels (column A) and a column for values (column B).

To add your own data, first delete the sample data. You can do this by highlighting all data and deleting, or by selecting Clear Sheet from the Data dropdown menu.

After deleting the sample data:

• Copy the data from the Google Sheet linked at the bottom of this page by highlighting the data and selecting Command + C on a Mac or Ctrl + C on a PC.
• Paste the data into the data sheet in Flourish by clicking the top-left cell, then selecting Command + V on a Mac or Ctrl + V on a PC, or
• Upload a file from your computer using the Upload Data tab:

Next, check that the columns in your data properly match the columns in the data sheet, ensuring that you have a column for labels and a column for values. Click on the Preview tab to view your data as a bar chart.

For more on how to delete or add data into Flourish, see this guide on adding data to a template.

Title, source, and labels

3

Adding a title and a source

To add a title, start in the Preview tab of your chart, scroll down until you find Header on the right side of the screen and click to open.

Copy the title and subtitle and paste them in the title and subtitle box in the settings panel.

Title: Dogs more popular than cats in the USA
Subtitle: Most popular pets in the USA by number of households

 

To add source information, scroll down to the Footer section, or use the search bar at the bottom of the page to help locate the correct tab.

Copy the source and source URL and paste them into Flourish.

Source: Statista
Source URL: https://www.statista.com/statistics/198095/pets-in-the-united-states-by-type-in-2008/

 

4

Sorting and Adding Labels to Bars

To make the bar chart easier to read, we recommend organizing the bars from largest to smallest.

To do this, locate Sort Mode under the Chart Type tab and select Value.

You can also sort the bars from A to Z or from Z to A by selecting the dropdown at the top of column B in the data sheet.

Next, add labels to the bars in your chart. To do this, navigate to the Labels tab and click on Show labels on data points.

Notice that the labels now appear for each bar, but they are quite long. To shorten these, remove the zeros in each data point by going to the Number formatting tab, then:

• Adding the letter m in the Suffix field, then
• Click on Advanced
• Scroll down and turn on Multiply/divide vales
• Select Divide by from the dropdown
• Add 1000000 in the field next to the dropdown

Now that the cleaner labels have been added, the x-axis can optionally be removed. To do this, remove this by opening the X Axis tab, then clicking on Hidden, under the Position setting.

Screen size, sharing and exporting

5

Testing screen size and settings sharing options

Flourish allows you to test what your chart will look like on different sized screens. To do this, select and drag the right side of the chart.

You can also choose from one of the three buttons in the upper left corner of the screen to see your chart in the following screen sizes:

• Desktop
• Tablet
• Mobile

In the Mobile view, notice that the Y axis labels are quite long. To better accommodate these, navigate to Labels, then select Above bars.

Flourish offers a number of options for sharing your visualizations. Though you do not need to do so, you can find these by selecting the Share button at the top of the screen. From the drop down, you can select the following sharing options:

• Only I can view
• Anyone at [your organization's name] can view
• Anyone at [your organization's name] can edit

To distinguish this chart from other projects you are working on, give the visualization a name. Copy the title of the chart and paste it in the file name in the upper left corner.

6

Exporting your chart

Flourish gives you a number of ways to export your chart. You can access these options by clicking on the Export & publish button.

From there, you can:

• Publish and embed
• Download as an image (PNG, SVG, or JPEG) 
• Export your visualization into Canva or PowerPoint
• Download the HTML

Select Publish to share and embed. From here, you will be asked if you'd like to require a password to open your file or allow others to duplicate your chart. You can select either of those, or just click Publish.

Once you publish, a series of embedding options will appear:

• A link that is shareable
• Script to include in your CMS, or
• Under More Options, you can download an iFrame or AMP of your chart

Flourish recommends using the embed script, as it means the visualization will be fully responsive on mobile.

Part Two

Custom Colors

1

Flourish allows you to fully customize the colors in your visualization. To do this, open the Colors tab on the right. Select By row, which will assign a separate color to each bar.

2

To edit the colors in the chart, click on the dropdown next to the color palette. This will allow you to select from a number of other palettes.

To edit the colors in the current palette, select Edit color palette. From here, you can:

• Change each color individually by clicking on the color box and selecting a new color
• Remove any unwanted colors by clicking on the X to the right of the color

3

Add specific colors to your chart with the Custom overrides setting. This allows you to assign colors to each bar with the name, Hex code, or RGB numbers of the desired color. Hover over the ? next to this setting to see details on how to add custom colors.

4

As an example, to highlight the Dog and Cat bars within this chart:

• Type Dog (remember that this is case sensitive and must match the label as it appears in your chart)
• Add a :
• Then Hex code
• Start a new line and follow the same steps for Cats

By adding these custom colors to your chart, the legend becomes redundant. To remove this, open the Legend setting and select Off under Legend Mode.

To make your visualization stand out even more, apply the colors used in the custom override setting to your chart's title by selecting Auto under Add custom colors to header text.

And there you have it - a completed bar chart that is ready to share or publish!