Cleaning Data with OpenRefine: Layout

The home screen of OpenRefine contains several screens, menus, and panels.

The far left panel contains several options:

• Create project - Allows you to select where to get data to start a new project.
  • This Computer - This is the most-used option. Browse your local computer for files.
  • Web Addresses (URLs) - You can pull online data from URLs.
  • Clipboard - You can paste in data here.
  • Database - You can connect to SQL databases.
  • Google Data - You can import a Google spreadsheet from Google Drive.
• Open project - Shows a list of the most recent projects that have been opened.
• Import project - Allows you to import a project from local files or a URL.
• Language settings - Allows you to change the default language

At the bottom of the panel:

• Preferences - Allows you to change some notification preferences. For advanced users only.
• Help - Opens the OpenRefine user manual.
• About - Displays contributors and license information. 

The home screen of OpenRefine contains several screens, menus, and panels.

The left panel contains two tabs:

• The Facet/Filter tab - shows filtered results based on text, numerical, or date faceting.
• The Undo/Redo tab - shows a history of actions you have taken (excluding temporary sorting and filtering) and allows you to reverse or redo changes if you don't like the results. This list of actions can also be exported and reapplied to other datasets.

The grid header shows you how you are viewing the data.

• Show As allows you to change the view grid between rows or records.
  • Rows display the data in individual, numbered lines
  • Records display the data in multi-line groupings dependent on relationships.
• Show allows you to limit or expand the number of rows in the data grid view.

The grid view is the main area in the center of the page containing the rows and columns.

• Column headings with dropdown arrows for choosing functions
• Row/Record numbers and alternate row/record shading
• Selectable flags and stars

The export controls are in the top-right corner.

• The Open button allows you to open a new project.
• The Export button allows you to change the format before exporting your cleaned file.
• The Help button opens the OpenRefine help website.