Charts and diagrams from text

Charts and diagrams in Deckwright are text too. You write the numbers or the steps, Deckwright draws them with the same engines as the usefulweb chart and diagram tools.

Add a chart

1. Put the cursor on an empty line in a slide.
2. Open Insert and choose Chart from CSV.

A block appears. Its first line is three backticks followed by the word chart, its last line is three backticks. Between them:

type: bar
title: Visitors per day
x: Day
y: Visitors
alt: What the chart shows in one sentence.

Day,Visitors
Mon,120
Tue,135
Wed,128

The lines before the empty line are options, the rest is CSV. Replace the numbers with your own. type can be bar, hbar (horizontal bars), stacked, line, area, pie, donut, scatter, histogram or auto (Deckwright picks one). For more than one series, list them in y, for example y: 2025,2026, and add those columns to the CSV.

If you already have a CSV file, use Insert → Chart from a CSV file…. Deckwright adds a new slide with the chart.

Describe the chart

Replace the words after alt: with one sentence that says what the chart shows — the trend, not every number. For example: “Visitors stayed between 120 and 135 a day all week.” This sentence becomes the alternative text in the PDF, the HTML file and PowerPoint.

Without alt: Deckwright writes a summary from the data and the Check view adds a note.

Add a diagram

Choose Insert → Diagram. A block that starts with three backticks and the word diagram appears; inside, the first line flowchart LR means left to right (TD goes top-down), followed by the steps:

A[Start] --> B{Question?}
B -- yes --> C[Do this]
B -- no --> D[Do that]

Square brackets make boxes, curly braces make decision diamonds, text between -- and --> labels an arrow. You can also write sequenceDiagram with lines like Customer->>Shop: Order or mindmap with indented words.

The line %% alt: … at the top is the description of the diagram.

When something does not draw

If a chart or diagram cannot be drawn — a missing column, a typo in an arrow — the slide shows a message in place of the picture and the yellow box below the preview explains it. Fix the text and the preview updates.

Keep charts small: a slide is read in seconds. Up to about eight bars or two lines is easy to follow.