Display Data From Excel with Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is a very powerful data management resource freely available online. If you have a spreadsheet containing data that you want to display better, consider uploading it to Google Fusion Tables.

1. Start with an Excel file containing your data. If it contains the locations for different data points, add the full addresses or other coordinates in the first column. See Figure 1. Save it as a comma separated value file, the .csv format.

2. Go to the Fusion Tables page at https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2571232#viz and choose the option to create a new table. You will need to create a Google account if you don't already have one.

3. Select and load the .csv file. If you click on the Map tab, you'll see each of the locations displayed in Google Maps - the familiar tool used across the world to get people where they're going.

4. Click the plus sign to the right of the tabs, and you'll see that you can easily add in a variety of chart types.

5. Best of all, by choosing the option to publish the table in the Tools menu, you can embed the html code online, as I've done here. You can even sort the data, one column at a time.