Adding data to a template

Ready to make a Flourish visualization? In this help doc, we'll outline the typical workflow for adding data to a template, with some handytips & tricks along the way.

1

Choose your template

The template chooser is the place to start.

Choose the chart or map type you want to make. If you're having trouble deciding, check out this help doc about choosing the right visualization for your data.

2

Check out the default data

Each starting point in the template chooser has some default data that shows you what kind of data the template is expecting for the visualization.

It can be useful to check out the default datasheet to inspect the  shape of the data and the types of data in each column.

For example, the  Column chart (grouped) starting point has data and bindings that look like this:

3

Check your data looks the same

4

Upload your data

There are a few different ways to add data to your template. Click the arrows to navigate through the story below describing our upload options:

5

Set column bindings

Column bindings are found in the datasheet to the right of the data table. They tell the template which columns of data should be used for what in the visualization.

You’ll find different column bindings across our templates, but the process of setting them remains the same.

Some bindings accept just one column (like Labels/time in the Line, bar, pie template), while others accept multiple columns (like Values).

For multiple column bindings, use hyphens for consecutive columns and/or commas for non-consecutive columns.

E.g. A-E,G will select columns A, B, C, D, E & G.

Auto-set column bindings

We're just starting to roll out a very useful feature across Flourish where the templates interpret the data you upload and automatically select the most appropriate columns for each binding.

When you upload data to these templates, by default the template will automatically select which columns to use for different bindings. To read more about this powerful feature, check out this help doc.

Note: Auto-set columns is currently only available in the Scatter, Radar, Timeline, Sankey, Table, Bar chart race, Projection map and Line chart race templates. We'll be rolling it out in more templates soon.

6

Start customizing

Now you've got your data uploaded and columns bound, you're ready to start customizing your visualization.

Head back to the Preview tab and start exploring the settings panel. For more information, check out our help docs for the template you're working with here.