Welcome to the Vizzu Docs!
This is a comprehensive and hopefully always up-to-date documentation of the Vizzu app.
You can navigate the content with the table of contents on the right side or use your browser’s search function.
Getting Started
Set New Password
As a beta tester, you got an email with a link that lets you request a new password - since we already registered you in Vizzu. Click on the “Set new password” button in the email when you’re ready to start using Vizzu.
First, you have to request a new password
Then, by clicking on the “Reset Password” in the email that has been sent to you, you’ll get to the screen where you can set and confirm your password and log in.
Log In
If you want to use Vizzu later, you can log in by going to https://app.vizzu.io and entering your email address and password.
Create New Vizzu & Upload Data
As a first step, click on the plus sign in the list of vizzus.
Then, click the plus sign to open a file browser/finder on your computer and select a CSV file to upload to Vizzu.
Upload the right data format
You need to put your data in the right format for successful data upload.
Each category e.g. months should be in its column. The column can be called Months and will contain the months of the year as you can see in the example.
Each quantity should be a single quantity e.g. “items sold” as you can see in the example.
Check Uploaded Data, Set Data Series’ Type
This screen shows the data you’ve just uploaded. You can check if everything is okay and set the data type for each series at the top of the screen.
When ready, click “Create new vizzu” to build your data story.
The data type is automatically set, but in some cases, you can change it. Vizzu currently uses three data types:
Categories: categorical data (e.g. Country, Product category, Marketing channels)
Quantities: numerical data (e.g. Revenue, Items sold, Visitors)
Time series: categorical data that is time-related - (e.g. Year, Month) - they are treated the same as categorical for now
The column separator in the CSV is also automatically set, but you can change it if Vizzu identified it incorrectly.
Update Your Data
You can come back to this screen even after you start editing your vizzu to check or update the data behind it.
Data that you upload will replace data that was already there.
If everything looks ok with the updated data, you can get back to the Editor Screen and you’re vizzu will be updated with the new data.
The data series types in your new data will be checked against the previous data. If you used a data series (e.g. Year) as a quantity in your vizzu and a data series with the same name is now a category, you’ll get an error message, and you will have to correct your data or cancel the update to move forward.
Build Your Vizzu - The Story Editor Screen
This is the most essential screen of Vizzu, where you create and edit your data story.
Data Series
Click on the + sign in the top right corner to open the full list of data series in your CSV.
The data series currently on your chart have a white background. You can add or remove any data series by clicking on them.
The data series on your chart are also listed in the top right corner, with quantities on top and categories below.
By clicking on the name of a data series, you access its context menu. In the case of quantities, you have the option to set the aggregation logic of values (Sum, Min, Max, or Average) and to remove that series from your chart. In the case of categories, you can remove the series from the chart.
Available options for aggregation are:
- Sum - sum value of elements - default
- Min - minimum value of elements
- Max - maximum value of elements
- Avg - average value of elements
In some cases, you can see small icons on the left side of the data series’ name, indicating, e.g., that that category sets the color, the lightness, or the size of the markers.
You can reorder data series of the same kind (quantities and categories) by dragging and dropping them.
If you want to modify the chart, you have the following options besides adding/removing data series.
You can change which data category is having the colorization by drag and dropping it and changing the order
Suggestions
Click on a suggestion on the right side. Suggestions contain the same data series you selected but in a different configuration.
Config Buttons
These buttons allow you to change certain aspects of your chart. Click on the three icons at the top to access options for sorting, alignment, and the geometric elements used (rectangle, circle, line, area).
By clicking on More, three additional options appear that enable you to switch from values to percentages, use the split option for stacked charts, and select the Cartesian or the Polar coordinate system. The currently set values are indicated either by the icon or the switch that appears.
Not all options are available for all charts, but this is currently not handled in the app, so you might set a config button differently, but still nothing changes.
Slides
Slides are the building blocks of your vizzu data story. You can navigate to any of them by clicking on them. You can rearrange them by drag-and-drop. You can delete them using the “X” that appears when you hover your mouse over them.
Clicking on the new slide button will clone your actual slide to a new slide.
Other Features of the Editor
Switch between Data upload, Story Editor, and Style modes
You can check or refresh the data you’ve used to build your vizzu or enter Style mode which lets you edit and show/hide text, such as the title and subtitle.
Soon, there will be many more styling options available
Style Mode Feature
In style mode you can switch on and off title, subtitle and caption generated by Vizzu. By switching the functions off you can add your own titles and caption
Enter Presentation Mode
Click the Present button to enter Presentation mode.
Undo/Redo
These are available at the top of your screen or via the Ctrl / Cmd Z and Ctrl / Cmd Y hotkeys. With them, you can undo your last action or redo your last undo.
Presentation Mode
When you turn on Presentation mode, most of the Editor’s controls disappear so all eyes can be on your fabulous new data story.
The arrows in the bottom left corner allow you to switch between your slides. Alternatively, you can use your keyboard’s arrow keys or PgUp and PgDn to go to the previous or next slide. You can also use a presenter connected to your computer to navigate between your slides.
You have a simple timeline beneath your chart that represents your full story. The dots on the timeline are your slides and if you hover over them, the thumbnail of that slide appears. Clicking on these dots will switch over to that specific slide.
The Fullscreen button in the bottom right corner turns your presentation fullscreen. You can leave fullscreen by clicking the button again or hitting the “Esc” key.
You can get back to the editor with the “Back to editor” button that appears on the top of the screen if you move your mouse over there.
Style Mode
This mode will soon let you change your charts’ look and feel and edit text fields, like the title, subtitle and caption. While we’re working hard to have these options available, right now, you can only turn some elements like the title, the legend, and the value labels that appear on the chart off and on. The “Auto” option means that the default logic for hiding/showing that element is used.
