Account
| Name | Created | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Created | Questions | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Date | Slides | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
owid_slug · title · category · enabled (TRUE/FALSE).Optional:
description · x_axis · recreate.Entity or Code (ISO-3) · Year · value columns.Header format:
Name [unit | source] or just Name.Question · Option_A · Option_B · Option_C · Answer (A/B/C) · Explorer_URL.Optional:
Explanation · ok (TRUE to include).text (markdown) · link or url (explorer).Each tab = one chapter. Markdown:
# Heading · - list · > quote.• Results (
/r?…) — real-time results, show on big screen.• Cockpit (
/c?…) — admin link to control the poll. Keep it private.The "Start / next question" advanced link is used directly from DirectPoll.
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Explorers | ||
| Saved explorers | 3 | Unlimited |
| Indicators per explorer | 10 | 100 |
| XY scatter charts | Yes | Yes |
| Private explorers (access-restricted link) | No | Yes |
| Embed explorer on external site (iframe) | No | Yes |
| Quiz & Dashboards | ||
| Saved quiz | 2 | Unlimited |
| Saved dashboards (slides) | 2 | Unlimited |
| Export as HTML | Yes | Yes |
| Share via link | Yes | Yes |
| Data sources | ||
| Our World in Data | Yes | Yes |
| World Bank | Yes | Yes |
| IMF, OECD, Google Data Commons | No | Yes |
| WID, Penn World Tables, V-Dem, QOG | No | Yes |
| Custom indicators (Google Sheets) | No | Yes |
| Private / proprietary data upload | No | Yes |
| Storage & retention | ||
| Content retention | Deleted weekly | Indefinite |
| Support | ||
| Support | No | |
An Explorer is an interactive chart that lets users visualise one or more indicators across countries and time. It combines a time-series line chart, a map view, a scatter plot (XY), and a bar chart — all in one shareable URL.
Explorers are built on the OWID Grapher engine and are fully embeddable in any website via an <iframe>.
- Go to Create Explorer (create_exp.html).
- Choose a data source from the dropdown: Our World in Data, World Bank, IMF, OECD, Custom…
- Search for indicators and click + to add them to your basket.
- Enter your email, give the explorer a name, and click Create Explorer.
- The pipeline runs in ~5–30 seconds and returns a live URL.
When you add two or more indicators to the basket, the pipeline automatically creates all pairwise XY scatter charts. These appear as chart tabs inside the explorer. The scatter chart includes population bubbles and continent colours by default.
In the basket, check the x checkbox next to an indicator to mark it as the default X-axis variable. This influences which scatter chart is displayed first.
Check the log checkbox in the basket to display an indicator on a logarithmic scale by default.
All explorers you create are listed in My Explorers. From there you can copy the share URL, open the explorer, or delete it.
A Dashboard (also called Slides) is a presentation deck you build from indicator data. Each slide contains a title, a text block with markdown formatting, an optional image or chart embed, and a link.
Dashboards are great for classroom presentations, stakeholder reports, or storytelling with data.
- Go to Create Dashboard (create_slides.html).
- Click Add slide or import slides from a Google Sheet.
- Each slide has: Title, Text (markdown), Image URL, Link.
- Click Preview to see the full-screen presentation.
- Use Dashboard ▼ → Save to save, or Share to get a link.
Your Google Sheet must have columns named: text, link. Each row becomes one slide. The sheet must be public (Anyone with the link can view).
- Open the import bar (import icon in the toolbar).
- Paste your Google Sheet URL and press Enter, or click a saved sheet pill.
- Click a tab pill to load that tab's slides.
Native templates are pre-built slide sets you can load with one click. They appear as pills in the import bar under "Native templates".
Use Dashboard ▼ → Download as CSV to export the current slides as a CSV file — useful as a starting point for a new Google Sheet.
Use Dashboard ▼ → Email to send the current presentation by email via the MSO email service (powered by Brevo).
A Quiz is an interactive multiple-choice questionnaire you can embed in a presentation or share as a standalone page. Each question has 3 options, one correct answer, an optional explanation, and an optional link to an Xplore explorer.
- Go to Create Quiz (create_quiz.html).
- Click Add question to add questions manually.
- Or import from a Google Sheet (see below).
- Click Preview to test the quiz.
- Use Quiz ▼ → Save to save, or Share to get a link.
Your sheet must have these columns (header row required):
- Answer — must be exactly
A,B, orC. - ok — set to
TRUEto include the question, leave empty to skip. - Explorer_URL — optional link to an Xplore explorer shown after the answer.
- Explanation — optional text shown after the user answers.
- Open the import bar in Create Quiz.
- Paste your Google Sheet URL and press Enter.
- Click a tab pill to load that tab's questions.
After saving, you get a shareable URL. You can embed it in an <iframe> in any webpage or LMS. The quiz is self-contained and requires no login from the participant.
Use Quiz ▼ → Download as CSV to export the current questions as a CSV — useful to start editing in Google Sheets.
Explorer_URL column lets you link each question to a live interactive chart — great for classroom use after revealing the answer.Google Sheets is the recommended way to manage your data for custom indicators, quiz questions, and dashboard slides. All connections go through the Xplore server-side proxy — your sheet never needs to be shared with the Xplore app; it only needs to be publicly readable.
- Open your Google Sheet → Share (top-right).
- Click Change to anyone with the link.
- Set role to Viewer.
- Copy the link — this is what you paste in Xplore.
Go to Links & Data in My Account to save your sheet URLs. You can save separate sheets for:
- Custom Indicators — sheets loaded automatically in Create Explorer.
- Indicator List — custom list of indicators for the explorer sidebar.
- Quiz — sheets loaded as suggestions in Create Quiz.
- Slides — sheets loaded as suggestions in Create Dashboard.
Saved sheets appear as clickable pills in the import bar of each tool.
Each tab in your sheet is treated as a category. Each tab must have these columns:
- Entity — country name (e.g. France).
- Code — ISO3 country code (e.g. FRA).
- Year — 4-digit year.
- Additional columns are treated as indicator values. Column headers become indicator names.
- You can add units using bracket notation:
GDP [USD billions].
Custom indicators imported from Google Sheets are always live: the Xplore proxy fetches your sheet directly at explorer load time (5-minute cache). This means:
- No pipeline re-run needed when you update your sheet.
- Data is always up-to-date.
- Your explorer URL never changes.
Each tab in a Google Sheet becomes a separate category of indicators. For example: a sheet with tabs "Revenue", "Operations", "HR" will create three categories in the explorer sidebar.
DirectPoll (directpoll.com) lets you run live audience polls. Xplore integrates DirectPoll in the Quiz — participants vote on their phone and results appear live inside the published quiz.
- Go to directpoll.com and sign in.
- Create a new poll. Name it with just the question number (e.g.
Question 1). - Add exactly 3 choices:
A,B,C— nothing else. - Copy the Results link (
directpoll.com/r?…) — this is what you save in Xplore. - Also copy the Cockpit link (
directpoll.com/c?…) — this is your presenter control panel.
- Go to Links & Data → Live Polls.
- Click + Add poll and paste the Results URL and Cockpit URL.
- Save — your poll links will be automatically pre-filled in Create Quiz.
- In Create Quiz, click Quiz ▼ → Publish.
- Enable Poll 1 and/or Poll 2 — the URLs from your account are pre-filled.
- During the presentation, the published quiz shows the live poll results iframe for those questions.
- Use the ↻ Reset button next to each poll to reset votes before a new session.