Using Trends' powerful chart builder search feature is straightforward and accessible to anyone. In the search bar, simply type what you want to explore. For example, you might type: "revenue midwest sales rep". When you search, Trends returns a set of results, which we call a chart.
As you become more comfortable with Trends' chart builder capabilities, you'll be able to perform more complex searches and get richer insights from your data. Before starting a new Trends search, here are a few basic things you should understand.
How to use a chart builder?
You've likely seen a search bar like this before:
Click in the box and start typing. As you begin to type, Trends will suggest terms. Type at a comfortable pace and use the suggestions to help you quickly find what you're looking for.
After you press Enter on your keyboard or select Go to the right of the search bar, you will see an answer displayed as a chart or a table. It’s important to understand that search in Trends works more like an Amazon search than a conversational chat. For instance, instead of typing:
Find all donations by John Doe in 2025
You would type:
John Doe Donations 2025
Consider a search engine like Google. You wouldn’t type in:
What year received the largest volume of donations
You would type:
Largest donation volume year
This is how search works in Trends. You can use helper words like "what," "find," and "when," but you can also leave them out, and the search will still return the same chart.
Typing logic
The chart builder search relies on the tables within your data. Tables consist of rows and columns, similar to spreadsheets. Therefore, you can build a chart builder search query by typing any of the following:
The column name: such as amount or fee
Any of the values found in the columns: such as first name, fund, or frequency
One of the special keywords Trends understands: such as yesterday, $ > $, or contains
Pin a chart
A chart is the result of a single search. You can save a chart by pinning it if you want to work on it later or keep it for your personal use. You can also share a chart with other users. The charts tab is where you can view and edit your pinned search results. To pin a chart, select the three dots menu in the top right corner of your chart and click Pin.
