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Visualizing Data in Count: An Overview

Get started with visualizations in Count

M
Written by Mitra Abrahams
Updated this week

Count makes it easy to explore and share insights through visuals on your canvas. Here’s how to get started.

Creating a Visual

To create a visual cell, use one of the following methods:

  • Select Visual in the canvas toolbar and click on the canvas to add it

  • Use keyboard shortcut V and click on the canvas

  • Click Create visual by hovering from a cell's edge and selecting '+'

  • Drag a column from the Data Sidebar into the canvas

Templated Visuals: Quick & Easy

Once you’ve created a visual cell, you can get started quickly by choosing a templated visual—just click the icon for the chart style you want. Templated visuals use pre-built layouts to help you build charts easily.

Basic steps to build a visual:

  1. Create a visual cell

  2. Select a template – from the "Type" dropdown

  3. Choose a data source – from the dropdown in the right-hand panel (this can be a table or another cell)

  4. Map your columns – drag columns from your dataset into the appropriate fields for the visual

  5. Format your visual – customize styling, labels, axes, and more

Customizing your visual further

Aggregating your data

By clicking the three dots next to one of the mapped fields in your design panel, you will see options to display your data as a predefined aggregate. Note that if you need more flexibility than these options allow, you can also input custom calculations by selecting 'Edit calculation...' from this list.

Filters & Controls

Use filters if you want to focus on only some of your data:

  • Drag a column to the Filter field and specify which values to filter on

  • Or you can link filters to Control cells to allow users to interact with your visual by selecting 'Connect to control' in this menu

Formatting Your Visual

Most formatting of the marks that make up your chart can be accessed through the three dots that appear next to each field and clicking on the Display tab:

In these menus you can fine-tune:

  • Axis spacing, labels, rotation

  • Formatting of colors and labels

  • Legend and tooltip visibility and formatting

Styling Options

Control the appearance of your visual (not the data itself) via the Style panel - scroll down your design bar of visualization options if you can't spot it, split into three tabs:

  • Text: font styles, labels, axes

  • Grid: dividers, tick marks, lines

  • Sheet: background, rows/columns color

Custom Visuals: Power & Flexibility

Custom visuals give you deep control over layout, marks, channels, and styling. You can start with a template visual (and we often recommend this) and then when you'd like further control just click over to the 'Custom' tab for more options.

You can use multiple marks, configure subplots, and style each element of the visual exactly how you want. Here is an overview of these features:

Marks are the core elements of a visual — bars, lines, circles, etc. Adding more of these can allow you create more complex charts, for example, combining a bar and a line chart into one visual.

Facets allow you to repeat a visual across values in a column (e.g., per country, per product).

Subplots let you create charts on separate axes within the same visual - this is helpful when comparing charts that share a common axis, but separate scales on the other.

Explore What’s Possible

Count can produce nearly any kind of visual. For inspiration and examples, check out this curated canvas: Every Visual Under the Sun.

For further information, see our other Help Center articles on visualizations or our documentation.

Alternative spellings/terms: visualisation, visualise, colour, customise, customisation, hover text.

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