Detailed answers about importing spreadsheet data, choosing an axis, calculating changes, arranging charts, exporting images and PDFs, and keeping workspaces safe.
Open TrendGridWhat TrendGrid does, who it is for, and the quickest way to build a useful chart grid.
TrendGrid turns multiple small data series into one compact grid of line, bar, or area charts. Each card can show a headline value, change, labels, direction color, and its own imported dataset, so a dashboard can combine signals from different files.
It is designed for analysts, economists, researchers, operations teams, journalists, consultants, and anyone who needs to compare many trends without building a full business-intelligence dashboard. It also works for non-time categories such as products, regions, experiments, or ranked observations.
Choose the number of columns and rows, then use Replace data on each card to import its file. Review the detected label and value columns, correct the axis or order when needed, choose the chart type, and adjust the card settings before exporting.
It replaces the current workspace with the built-in demonstration cards. TrendGrid shows a browser confirmation first because this action removes the cards and edits currently in the workspace. Save a workspace file before continuing if you may need the current work later.
No. TrendGrid runs in the browser and its core import, editing, workspace, PNG, and PDF features do not require an account. The current version does not upload a workspace to an Attalos account.
Supported files, chart names, missing values, multiple columns, and correcting automatic detection.
TrendGrid accepts Excel workbooks, CSV files, and JSON data. Spreadsheet-style data should contain one label column and at least one numeric value column. JSON may be an array of records or another supported tabular structure that can be normalized into rows.
Each card is an independent signal. This lets you combine indicators from unrelated files, use different time granularities, and replace one chart without rebuilding the entire grid. Duplicating a card copies its current data and settings before you replace or edit it.
It reads the workbook data and looks for a usable table with labels and numeric values. Statistical workbooks with descriptive header rows are normalized where possible. If the automatic choice is not the table you intended, prepare a simpler sheet or CSV containing the exact rows and columns for that card.
TrendGrid looks at column headings and descriptive rows, including stacked statistical headers, to construct a meaningful title. If the source is ambiguous, it uses a safe fallback. Click the pen icon beside the card title to replace it with the wording you want.
Yes. The import settings expose the available columns so you can select the X-axis label column and the numeric value series. This is useful when a file contains identifiers, notes, multiple measures, or several possible date columns.
TrendGrid selects a likely value series and allows you to choose another one. A card displays one series at a time; create or duplicate additional cards when you want to compare several numeric columns from the same source.
Import diagnostics report missing labels, missing numeric values, and duplicate labels. Unusable rows may be excluded from the chart. Review these warnings because silently filling gaps or combining duplicates could change the meaning of the source data.
TrendGrid limits a chart to 5,000 source rows to keep editing and exporting responsive. Large render series are sampled with an extrema-preserving method so important peaks and troughs are less likely to disappear. Aggregate or filter the source first when every row is not needed.
How TrendGrid distinguishes dates, quarters, elapsed time, categories, and numeric axes—and how headline changes are computed.
It tests common date labels, full timestamps, month-and-year codes, and quarterly formats such as 2025 Q1 or Q1 2025. Quarterly statistical workbooks keep quarter granularity rather than being converted into arbitrary months. Use the card settings to correct the interpretation if the source uses a different convention.
Open the card settings and change or disable date interpretation. This is important for ambiguous day/month ordering, year-like category codes, or text that resembles dates. The corrected setting controls ordering, date labels, and available time filters.
Yes. Category axes can contain products, countries, departments, survey choices, experiments, or any other ordered labels. Numeric X-axes use proportional spacing when the values represent real distances; simple consecutive numbers are treated as an ordered sequence.
Yes. Clock-style labels, elapsed seconds or minutes, and full timestamps with seconds can be detected. Short relative ranges are then offered where appropriate instead of forcing economic year-based filters onto the data.
For economic and calendar series, TrendGrid supports quarterly, six-month, one-year, three-year, five-year, ten-year, and all-data views when the source covers those ranges. A one-year monthly view keeps the latest twelve monthly points; quarterly and six-month choices use rolling windows appropriate to the detected frequency.
For ordinary values, percentage change is (current value − comparison value) ÷ the absolute comparison value × 100. The current value is the latest point after the selected ordering and filter; the comparison value comes from the card's selected comparison period. If the comparison value is zero, TrendGrid avoids an infinite percentage and uses a finite fallback presentation.
For a metric formatted as a percentage, an absolute movement can be shown in percentage points—for example, 3.0% to 3.5% is +0.5 percentage points. This is different from the relative percentage increase, which would be about 16.7%.
Each card has a good-direction setting. Use Higher is better for metrics such as output or revenue and Lower is better for metrics such as response time or defects. The green and red status colors follow this meaning, not simply whether the number moved up or down.
Category axes do not assume that the last category is a later moment in time, so automatic change comparisons can be disabled. Instead, the card can summarize the total, average, minimum, maximum, count, or last row, depending on what best represents the dataset.
Yes. Keep source order, use automatic order, or sort ascending or descending where supported. TrendGrid always keeps each label paired with its value, so sorting does not separate the data points from their categories or dates.
Card controls, chart types, grid dimensions, dark exports, resolution, and PDF output.
Line charts emphasize movement and continuity, bar charts make discrete comparisons clearer, and area charts add visual weight to cumulative-looking series. The global chart-type control changes the grid presentation while preserving the imported card data.
You can choose up to six columns and eight rows. The visible cards follow the selected capacity. Very dense grids remain useful for high-resolution export, but fewer columns are normally easier to read on small screens.
You can rename, reorder, configure, replace data, duplicate, or clear a card. Settings include formatting, units, comparison behavior, direction, axis interpretation, and ordering. Destructive clear and delete actions use browser-side confirmation.
Category and sequence bars use equal visual spacing. Numeric axes can use proportional positions so real gaps are visible. TrendGrid keeps bar widths and spacing consistent with the selected axis model instead of mixing the two approaches accidentally.
The PNG contains the TrendGrid logo, summary, chart cards, headline values, changes, labels, colors, rounded card corners, and the selected light or dark background. Interface-only controls and workspace status text are left out. The default export is 2400 × 1800 pixels.
PDF export captures the designed TrendGrid output rather than printing the browser interface. It follows the selected theme and grid content, and excludes workspace notices and export-resolution labels. Check the final PDF at its intended page size before publishing or printing it.
Yes. Switch the Attalos theme to dark mode before exporting. PNG and PDF output use the active visual theme, while chart meaning colors remain differentiated for improving and declining signals.
Autosave behavior, portable files, undo and redo, local privacy, browser limits, and recovery steps.
The current workspace is autosaved locally in the browser using IndexedDB. Returning in the same browser profile can restore it, but clearing site data, using private browsing, or changing devices may remove or hide that local copy.
Save workspace downloads a portable TrendGrid JSON file containing the workspace name, cards, data, layout, chart type, and settings. Open workspace restores a compatible file. Keep these files as backups and use descriptive names when maintaining several dashboards.
Undo and redo cover complete workspace snapshots after imports, clearing, renaming, settings changes, rearrangement, duplication, and sample-data replacement. TrendGrid keeps the latest fifty history snapshots; making a new edit after undo clears the redo branch.
TrendGrid processes imports and creates workspace and export files in the browser. The current implementation does not send the imported spreadsheet contents to Attalos. Standard site analytics may record page usage, but not the chart dataset itself.
Use a current desktop version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari with JavaScript enabled. Excel parsing, large exports, PDF generation, and local storage require more memory than an ordinary article page, so a desktop browser is recommended for large grids.
Confirm the worksheet, header row, label column, numeric series, decimal formatting, missing values, detected axis type, and point order. Exporting the intended table as a clean UTF-8 CSV often removes workbook formatting and merged-header ambiguity.
Wait for fonts and charts to finish rendering, reduce the grid size if the browser is low on memory, and retry in a current desktop browser. Make sure browser download permissions are enabled. Saving a workspace file first protects the data while you reload or switch browsers.
TrendGrid is a presentation and exploratory visualization tool. Verify source definitions, units, seasonal adjustment, revisions, aggregation rules, missing-data treatment, and the selected comparison period before publishing a conclusion. The chart cannot determine whether two indicators are methodologically comparable.
