Plotlay
Menu
Open the app →

Learn · Analysis · Lesson 7 of 7

Snapshots and a one-page brief

You willKeep charts and numbers as snapshots, lay them out on a board, and export it as a PDF, PNG or PowerPoint.
Time4 min
Why it mattersA brief on one page, with its sources gathered for you, is how most analysis is handed on.

Try it in Plotlay → Opens an example project with this lesson beside it. Nothing to install.

Steps

  1. Open a chart or a map picture and choose Snapshot. In a table’s summary strip, Snapshot keeps the numbers.
  2. Choose + New board, start from One-page brief and choose Make the board: your snapshots fill its spaces.
  3. Drag a block to move it, and its corner to resize it. Blocks snap to the page’s columns.
  4. Click a title or a number to change its words on the right. + Text, + Number, + Line and + Sources add more.
  5. Click a chart on the board and choose Draw for this space, so its words read at that size.
  6. Choose PDF, PNG or PowerPoint. Each export is kept in Documents produced.

Tips

  • The sources block gathers the credits of every snapshot on the board, once each.
  • When the data changes, Refresh from the data draws a snapshot again; boards that show it follow.
  • Tick Show to people I share with and guests and view links see the board in their panel, as it is now; or share its exported PDF among the documents.
  • In 3D, Export then Snapshot for a board keeps the view for a board; the Drawing set can put any snapshot on a sheet of its own (A701 on).

Common mistakes

  • Expecting a snapshot to change by itself: it keeps the picture as it was until you refresh it.
Check yourself

Your data changed after you made a board. How do you bring its charts up to date?

Words in this lesson

Drawing set
One numbered PDF of sheets (cover, plans, elevations, sections, schedules) with the same title block on each.
Guest roles
What a person you invite may do: Can view (look and walk through), Can comment and pick options, or Can edit. Viewers need no account.
View link
A link anyone can open to look round a project without an account. It can end after 7 or 30 days, or never, and you can turn it off at any time. A link to a view opens it at one saved view.

Related lessons

Charts for a report or a slideThe right size and paper for where the chart goes, notes on the chart, and files that print sharply.3 minA map picture and a video over timeA data layer’s map as a finished picture with its legend, credits and callouts, and a short video of its time slider.3 min

Steps checked in the app on 8 November 2026.