If you have a personal Gmail address, you have a Google account. Check that you can access Google Drive with this account. Google Sheets will be our spreadsheet application for this workshop.
A powerful tool for data cleaning and procesing, once owned by Google, now open source. Download the latest version (Open Refine 2.6) from here. When launched, Open Refine will work in your default web browser; note that your data remains on your computer, and is not uploaded to the web.
Web app developed by German journalism organizations that has been used to make simple interactive charts by several leading news outlets. No installation required, but you will need to sign up for a free Datawrapper account using the Login/Sign Up link at top right of the home page.
Visualization software designed for exploratory graphic analysis, which also allows you to create interactive online graphics without JavaScript coding. Download here. You will also need to sign up for a free Tableau Public account.
The Public version of the software requires you to save your visualizations to the open web. However, journalists who are members of Investigative Reporters and Editors can obtain a license for the Professional version, which allows you to save workbooks on your own computer.
Your go-to resource for color schemes to encode data. Web app: no installation required.
Check that your maps and charts will not exclude the color-impaired by installing this color blindness simulator.
A sophisticated cloud-based mapping application that also functions as a geospatial database, allowing you to analyze and process geodata. Sign up here for a free account.
I would also recommend downloading and installing a text editor optimized for authoring web pages. Sublime Text is a good option.