Charts and equations

Papero can draw charts and diagrams and typeset equations inside your document. A chart is a numbered figure with a caption, like an image. An equation can sit inside a sentence or on its own line with a number.

On a Mac, read ⌘ wherever this page says Ctrl.

Make a chart

1. Put your cursor where the chart should go.
2. Press Insert on the toolbar, or type /, and choose Chart.
3. The New chart panel opens with three tabs, Describe, Customise and Source, over a live preview.
4. In Describe, say what the chart shows and give the numbers or steps, then press Generate. Papero shows Making your chart…, then Your chart is ready. Check the preview below.
5. Press Insert to put the chart in your document.

The chips under Quick starts fill the box with an example to edit: Bar chart, Line chart, Flowchart, PRISMA flow diagram, Forest plot, Survival curve, Scatter with trend line and Conceptual model. Replace the example's numbers with your own.

If the answer cannot be drawn, press Retry, or describe the chart differently. Labels stay in the language you describe them in.

Customise a chart

The Customise tab changes the chart without AI. What it offers depends on the chart:

• Colours: The chart’s own colours, Papero default (colour-blind safe), Greyscale (print) or Shades of blue, and a colour for each series, bar or slice.
• Legend: Automatic, Top, Bottom, Right, Inside, top right or Hidden.
• Orientation: Vertical or Horizontal.
• Horizontal axis title, Vertical axis title and Chart title, with Show the title inside the picture or Move the title into the caption.
• For a diagram, Direction: Top to bottom or Left to right.

Write or paste the chart's code

The Source tab holds the chart's code, and you can edit it directly. Under Format, pick Plotly (JSON) for charts or Mermaid for diagrams such as flowcharts. A Plotly chart can use bar, scatter, box, violin, histogram, heatmap, contour or pie traces. If the code has an error, the panel says what is wrong and keeps the last picture that worked.

Make a chart from a table

In a table, press Make a chart from this table in Table tools. The chart panel opens with the table's data as the chart's source. The first column names the bars, and the table needs a column of numbers after it, with no merged cells under the header row. See Tables, figures and images.

Change a chart later

Point at a chart to see its toolbar:

• Edit chart opens the panel again. Press Apply to save your changes. In Describe, you can ask for a change to the chart, such as different labels.
• Show caption or Hide caption, and Add note.
• Expand chart shows it larger.
• Download PNG saves the picture.
• Copy chart source copies its Plotly or Mermaid code.

Insert an equation

You can add an equation in three ways:

• Press Insert on the toolbar and choose Equation.
• Type / and choose Equation for a formula on its own line, or Inline equation for one inside a sentence.
• Type TeX between dollar signs, such as $x^2$, for an inline equation, or $$ and a space on an empty line for one on its own line.

An equation cannot go in a heading, a caption or a code block.

Edit an equation

The equation editor opens on the equation:

1. Type the formula in TeX code. The Preview under it shows the result as you type.
2. Use Symbols to insert Structures, Greek letters, Relations and Operators without remembering their TeX.
3. An equation on its own line is numbered, so your text can refer to it. Turn off Numbered to drop the number.
4. Press Done, or Ctrl+Enter, to keep it. Cancel leaves the equation as it was.

To open the editor again, click the equation, or select it and press Enter. To refer to a numbered equation from your text, type / and pick it under Refer to.

When you paste a formula copied from ChatGPT, Claude or a web page that shows formulas with MathJax, it usually arrives as an equation you can edit. TeX between $ or $$ signs in pasted text becomes an equation too.

Describe an equation in words

If you do not know the TeX, press Describe it in words in the equation editor. Type a description, for example "the quadratic formula", and press Generate. Papero writes the TeX into the box: check the preview, then press Done to keep it.

AI, your data and your allowance

When you describe a chart or an equation, Papero sends the AI only your description and, when you are changing an existing one, its current code or TeX. Nothing else from your document goes with it.

A chart or an equation made by description counts as a rewrite in your plan's AI allowance when you keep it. Customising a chart, editing its code and typing TeX use no AI. The chart's Describe tab and Describe it in words show how many rewrites you have left, and Usage in the account menu shows all your allowances. To compare the plans, see pricing.

For more of what Papero can do, see the features page.