Today I needed a map of the countries that participate in the TIMSS study. The website provided a list of the countries, I just needed to map them.
Google Sheets
From Google Drive (http://drive.google.com) create a new Google spreadsheet.
Copy
Highlight the data on the website. Use Control C to copy the data.
Paste
Selecting cell A1 I paste the data from the website using Control V. I only need the list of country names, not the rest of the data. However, the extra columns will not inhibit my ability to create the chart so it is optional to delete the superfluous columns.
Clean Up the Data
When copying and pasting data there is a potential for the rows and columns to not paste perfectly. Make sure you check the data you copied and pasted. In particular the first and last data point might have pasted funky. Also check the data that occurs after headers. If the data has multiple sections you may need to delete out section headers or move data around.
Highlight the Data
In my example only column 1 contains the names of the countries I want to chart. I clicked on the column header for column A. If this was not the case I would want to highlight the range of data that I want to graph. Note that if your data skips columns, such as column A and D contain the data you want to chart, you might want to copy and paste into a new tab the data you want to chart so you can move column D next to column A. It is better if your data is together.
Chart Wizard
Click on the chart wizard icon in the toolbar or use the Insert menu to choose “Chart.”
Choose Country Chart
Google Sheets looks at your data and gives you some suggestions for the charts it thinks you might want to use. Since the data is a list of countries, Google Sheets shows me a suggestion for a chart of the map of the world. Choose this chart. If that is not an option click on the tab that says “Charts” and locate the countries map.
Own Sheet
After choosing the blue “Insert” button the chart will be floating on the tab with the data. You can move this chart around and also resize it if you want it to be side by side with the data. Alternatively, notice the drop down arrow in the upper right hand corner. Clicking on this provides options for saving the image or moving it to it’s own sheet.
