SankeyMATIC Manual

Getting Started: Nodes and Flows

Entering Data

In the field named “Inputs”, enter one “Flow” per line, using this format: Source [Number] Target

Sample: Income [100] Checking Account

After entering one or more Flows, click “Preview”.

SankeyMATIC will automatically lay out a diagram connecting all Source and Target “Nodes” using Flows with proportional thicknesses.

Example:
A [8] C B [4] C

Using the same Node name in multiple lines will produce multiple flows in or out of that Node.
Note: Node names are case sensitive: 'A' is not considered a match for 'a'.

Diagram Shape and Size

Is your data shown best using:

A tall rectangle?
A wide rectangle?
Something closer to a square?

These three examples all share the same inputs.

Experiment with the “Diagram Width” and “Height” settings to find what shape communicates your data most clearly.

Space between Nodes

Space = 3 px

Small spaces between Nodes lead to crowded or muddy diagrams, difficult to parse visually.

Space = 36 px

Large spaces between Nodes lead to thin spidery Flows, making differences between them harder to distinguish.

Space = 12 px

Find a happy medium appropriate for making clear comparisons between Flows.

Getting Data from a Spreadsheet?

Given data laid out like this in a spreadsheet document:

	A	B	C
1	From	To	Amount
2	Income	Budget	100
3	Budget	Expenses	60.75
4	Budget	Savings	39.25

Add another spreadsheet column applying either one of the following formulas to all of your data rows:

=A2 & " [" & C2 & "] " & B2

=CONCATENATE(A2, " [", C2, "] ", B2)

(Both formulas rearrange the data in the same way. Both have been tested in Excel and in Google Sheets.)

The new column will contain your data rearranged like this:

	A	B	C	D
1	From	To	Amount
2	Income	Budget	100	Income [100] Budget
3	Budget	Expenses	60.75	Budget [60.75] Expenses
4	Budget	Savings	39.25	Budget [39.25] Savings

Then copy & paste the data from that new column into the SankeyMATIC “Inputs” field, and voilà:

Next: Labels & Units »