| Quick Guides - Data & Charts | |
This tool lets you to customize the content of a table and chart
to show the exact indicators, geographic locations, and
timeframes you're interested in. As you select the elements you
want to display, DataPlace creates a table and companion chart
reflecting your choices. With this powerful tool, you can:
- Compare one or more indicators across multiple geographic locations.
- Examine changes in an indicator's value over time.
- Combine these features, comparing differences across locations and changes over time simultaneously.
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| Adding locations, indicators, and time frames | |
- Locations. If you haven't yet selected a location or
an indicator to display on the table and chart, DataPlace
defaults to showing total population for the United States. If
you have already selected a location or locations in your
session on DataPlace, they will appear on the Data & Charts
page.
You can quickly select a location to add to the table and chart
by typing the location name into the search box at the top of
the page. Or, you can browse to a location by clicking on the
"Browse Places" link located immediately beneath the search box
or on the drop-down arrow to the right of this link. Make the
final selection of the location to add by clicking on the Add
button in the browse pop-up box. Repeat this process to add
other locations to the table and chart.
- Indicators. If you haven't yet selected an indicator
to display on the table and chart, DataPlace defaults to showing
total population for the United States. If you have already
selected an indicator or indicators in your session on
DataPlace, they will appear on the Data & Charts page.
To the right of the chart, the yellow box labeled "Choose data
to show" provides several options for selecting indicators.
- My Indicators: If you're a registered DataPlace user and
are logged in to the site, this link displays the indicators
you have saved in your My DataPlace area. Click on the "add"
link to the left of an indicator label to add it to the
table and chart.
- Popular: This link displays the five most popular
indicators on DataPlace.
- Recently Used: This link displays the indicators that
you've previously selected in your current DataPlace
session.
- Browse All Topics: This link gives you several ways to
find an indicator. Type a key word -- such as "poverty"
or "subprime" -- in the search box and hit Search to
see all the indicators that contain the search term. You can
refine your search by adding other key words or removing
search terms by clicking
Or, you can browse all the indicators on DataPlace by Topic or
Data Source. When you choose a topic or data source, such as
"Housing" or "Internal Revenue Service," DataPlace lists all of
the related indicators and helps you sort through them quickly.
The gray Narrow Search Results box to the right of the list of
indicators displays various indicator subcategories. The number
in parentheses tells how many indicators fall into each
subcategory, and clicking on a subcategory shows a list of the
indicators within it. As you drill down into the subcategories,
the Narrow Search Results box shows various ways of further
slicing the indicators.
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Time frames.. When additional years of data are
available for a selected indicator, a drop-down box will appear
to the right of the chart. Select a time period from this drop-down,
and the historical data will be added to the chart. In the
example below, choosing "2001" from the drop-down and clicking
Go will add that year's data to the chart.
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| Selecting what subset/organization of data to show on the chart | |
Once you've built a basic table and chart with your selected
location(s), indicator(s), and time frame(s), you can customize
the groupings used to display the data on the chart. Using the
drop-down box below the chart, you can group the bars by year or
location. Using the "Colors show" drop-down, you can also alter
what the different colors represent on the chart. If you have
selected more than one indicator, you will see a third drop-down
that lets you further customize the chart.
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| Removing locations, indicators, and time frames | |
You can remove a location, indicator, or year by clicking next to it.
That data will be deleted from the table and chart.
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| Accessing maps from a Data & Chart page | |
You can get fast access to maps from the Data & Charts page by
clicking on any data value in a table. For example, in the table
below, each data value in the row for "Homeownership rate" is a
live link. If you mouse over a value, a pop-up box tells what
map will be produced if you click on the value. In this table,
clicking on the 34.5% value under 1990 for San Francisco takes
you to a map showing variations in homeownership
rates by census tract in San Francisco.
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| Accessing Data & Charts from other data display pages | |
Just as you can move quickly from a Data & Chart page to a map,
you can also quickly link to tables and charts from other types
of data displays.
From any Area Overview, you can link to a table and chart of any
indicator for a single location and then add data and locations.
Click the "Chart" link at the far right in the row for an
indicator.
From any Key Indicators page, you can link to tables and charts
that compare multiple indicators and/or locations
simultaneously. To display all the indicators in a particular
category on a single chart and table, click the "Chart all" link
at the far right, across from the indicator heading.
If you're comparing multiple locations on a Key Indicators page,
you can chart how the locations compare on any given indicator
by clicking the "Compare" link on the far right.
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| Printing and saving tables and charts | |
To print or save a formatted version of a table and chart, go to
the Chart Tools section to the right of the chart and click on
"Printable Version (PDF)." A new window will display your chart
and table in PDF format, ready for printing.
If you're a registered DataPlace user and are logged in to the
site, you can save a chart and table page to your My DataPlace
area and access it whenever you want. Go to Chart Tools and
click "Save this page."
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 Available Help Pages
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