A Brief Guide to JetPunk Charts
Last updated: Monday May 9th, 2022
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To create a new chart, navigate to the Create tab and hit 'Create Chart'. Then, hit 'Create New Chart'.
This directs to a page where you can create, edit, and manage your charts. Hit 'Create New Chart' to make a new chart.
Step 1: Options
The first step, Options, is similar to that of the blog and quiz editors, and also the easiest to learn to use - you can add a thumbnail, title, caveats, blurb (a short description of the chart which will appear over it), and change the language.
It may be helpful to add links sourcing where your data came from. This can be inputted into one of the caveats.
Step 2: Data
Step 2 is where you input your data for the chart. At first, there are two columns: X Axis and Series 1. (Series 1 is also the Y Axis; you can add more series' which creates more sets of data / lines)
If you're getting confused between the X and Y axis's, think of it like this: The X Axis is "independent"; the data from it does not rely on that of the Y Axis (aka Series 1). For example, if we were to make a chart of the most populous countries by year, the X Axis would be the year, as the year would not be dependent on anything else. The Y Axis, however, would be the population, as the population at a given time would be based on the year that the number was recorded.
You can also add more columns to your chart. What this does is it allows for more datasets (lines) to be added to the chart. For example, if you want to make a chart comparing the populations of countries, such as this one, you would add another column and insert the data for it.
Adding more rows/columns is similar to the way we do it on quizzes - hit "Add Row Above/Below" or "Add Column Above/Below" on the right-hand side. If you want to export or import data, refer to this Reddit post.
Step 3: Design
There are 3 design bars you can customize: the generic design options, for X Axis, and for the Y Axis. By default, the design options will look like this:
Point Size:
The first option, Point Size, defines the size of each point in the chart. By default, this is set to 0, which causes the points to not physically show up on the chart. A larger number = bigger point size.
Line Width:
The line width defines the thickness of the lines in a chart. A larger number = thicker line
Line Smoothing:
If Line Smoothing is enabled, it causes the lines on the chart to appear more round-ish and curved.
Legend Position:
This feature allows you to add a legend to the chart, either inside it, right of it, or on top of it.
Height/Width:
The Height or Width defines how tall or long the chart is, similar to the feature seen in the quiz editor.
Colors:
You can change the colors of the lines in your chart as well by using this option. Hit "Reset Colors" to switch the colors back to their defaults.
Label:
The Label feature allows you to add a label either below or left of the X axis. For example, this could be Year (for X Axis) or Number (for Y Axis).
Scale:
You can set the Scale of your chart to either linear (default) or logarithmic. A Linear chart uses an equal value in between each row, while a Logarithmic chart plots the data points based on the percent of change.
Number Format:
This is one of those features which you must change before submitting a chart. By default, the X and Y axis values are comma-separated. However, in many cases the X value generally shouldn't be comma separated. For example if the X value is Years, you wouldn't want it to say "2,020" or "1,957", otherwise that would look a bit weird. Instead, you can change this by setting the number format to #### .
There are many number formats which alter the X or Y values. The table down below shows some of them. Make sure you write them in lowercase.
| Number Format | Purpose |
|---|---|
| #### | No formatting is applied / formatting is removed (i.e. 2020) |
| decimal | The default formatting, which adds commas to #'s (i.e. 2,020) |
| long | Adds words to numbers (i.e. 2.02 thousand) |
| short | Abbreviates the numbers (i.e. 2.02K) |
| percent | Adds %'s to numbers (i.e. 202,000%) |
| currency | Displays the # with a $ sign before it (i.e. $2,020) |
Minimum/Maximum Values:
The Minimum value changes the smallest number on the given axis and vice versa. For example, if you were doing a chart on the population of a country from 2000 to 2020, the minimum value would be 2000 and maximum would be 2020. Usually, this is automatically set for you but if you want to go further in the past / future from where the chart's data prominently lies, you could use this feature.
Additional Information
- To view the list of a user's charts, go to their Profile page (not user quizzes page) and hit "___'s Charts".
- To add a chart to a blog, hit "Chart" on the right-hand side of the blog editor under Blog Components.
- To copy a featured chart, go to your Create / Edit Charts page and hit "Copy Featured Chart".
- You can access the list of featured charts here and recently created charts here.
Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you found it useful.