Tableau Public offers a free software application that can illustrate your numbers in charts, tables and maps and then lets you publish them to the web where others can interact with them. Tableau features a desktop authoring application (Windows, only) that produces published work that will work in all browsers.

When you select your data files to open in Tableau Public, the software recognizes the headings, columns and rows of your structured data and its simple drag and drop interface makes it easy to create graphics that illustrate them. You can use several file formats like text files, spreadsheets, database files, and comma separated files. When you have created your charts or maps, your work is saved to the company's web servers. You can then use the Share feature to generate code that can be cut and pasted to any web page to make the graphs public.

Point to or click on colored regions on the map or graph or on individual county names in the sample below to interact with this dashboard. Click in a background area to restore the map or graph.

The free Public Edition offers 50 megabytes of storage space. To view video tutorials and to download the software, visit Tableau Public.