A step by step walkthrough for turning a spreadsheet of questions into a published, embeddable calculator in PlotSet, with a formula that computes a result from visitors' answers.
About 10 minutesA short sequence of questions followed by a computed result, such as a score, an estimate or a recommendation, ready to embed on your page: that is what you will have. Each row of a spreadsheet becomes one question, and a formula you write turns the answers into a number.
Expect about ten minutes. Most of it is deciding the questions and the formula, since the template does the rest. Test it with a few known inputs before you publish.
One row per question with a question text and type, then optional answer options, a default answer, help text, an image URL and extra numeric columns such as a weight.
| question_text | question_type | answers_raw | fallback_value | context_text | image | weight_co2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How many miles do you drive per week? | number | 50 | Include commuting and errands | 0.4 | ||||
| How often do you fly each year? | slider | "0 | 10 | 1" | 2 | Return trips count as two | 250 | |
| What is your diet? | dropdown | Vegan|Vegetarian|Mixed|Meat heavy | Mixed | 1 | ||||
| How many people live in your home? | rating | 5 | 2 |
Question type must be one of text, number, dropdown, date, rating, slider or buttons. Anything else becomes a text box.
For dropdown and buttons, separate options with a pipe. Use label=value to store a value different from the label.
For rating, give the number of icons. For slider, give min,max,step, such as 0,10,1.
Extra numeric columns, such as a weight, are available in the formula as q1_weight, named by question number and column header.
The exact click path in PlotSet, from a blank template to a finished chart.
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose Calculator from the Other category. It loads with an eight-question sample so you can see every question type working.
Give each question a prompt and a type, then add options, a sensible default and a line of help text where it helps. Keep each question short and answerable in one move.
Import a CSV or .xlsx file from the data panel, paste rows from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet so changes to the questions flow through. The first row is read as the headers.
Confirm which column is the question text, type, options, default, help text, image and extra data. This is usually right automatically when the headers are clear.
Open the Submit and result tab. In the variables box add one name equals expression line per value, referring to answers as q1, q2 and so on. Then write the result text and put the names in double curly brackets.
In the Flow and design tab, show one question at a time with Back and Next buttons, or all questions on one page. Style the card, buttons and inputs to match your site.
The Question types tab styles each control separately: text and number inputs, dropdowns, rating icons, sliders and button groups.
Answer every question with known values and check the result against a hand calculation. Then publish and copy the embed code from the Share dialog.
Start from the Calculator template with sample data already loaded, then swap in your own.
Open the templateThe last stretch is the same for every chart type: Share turns the chart into a live public link and an embed code, Export writes it out as a static file.
Activating the embed code and public link publishes the chart. The link is safe to send to anyone, and the embed code drops into any page as an iframe that keeps the hover tooltips and the interactivity. Edit the chart later and hit Recreate to push those changes out to both.
Export writes a static copy at whatever size you need. SVG stays sharp at any scale and can still be edited in a design tool; PNG and JPG are the safe choices for slides and documents. The scale multiplier is what gets you a crisp image on a retina screen.
Use inputs whose answer you can work out in your head, so a wrong formula is obvious.
An untouched question uses its default, so pick the most common answer rather than zero.
Build the result in named steps, such as driving, flights and total, so the formula stays readable.
Use the Number and date format tab to set prefixes, suffixes and decimals so the result reads as a cost, a percentage or a weight.
A line in the formula is probably malformed, and a bad line silently evaluates to zero. Check the spelling of each name and bracket.
The type was misspelled or missing, so it fell back to text. Check it matches one of the seven types exactly.
Formulas use q1, q2 and so on by sheet order. If you move rows, update the formula.
The static export redraws the current state approximately. Use the live embed for the real experience.
Not sure the Calculator is the right choice? See what it is, when to use it and when not to.
A question text and a question type for each row. Options, defaults, help text, an image and extra numeric columns are optional.
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