How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex information.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to make statistical data and information a whole lot easier to grasp.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts let you present the information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be easily understood.
Charts and graphs help you present complex data so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Is fully responsive for viewing on mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the image to your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create dynamic bar charts and pie graphs in WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
Visualizer – WP Plugin
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (we explain how to do this further below), or access and download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.
The plugin uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no extra components are required.
Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in that are optimized to address all your data visualization needs, including:
- Line chart
- Area chart
- Bar chart
- Column chart
- Pie chart
- Geo chart
- Gauge chart
- Candlestick chart
- Scatter chart
Visualizer is a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your web design. Various options are available for each chart that let you fully customize their settings.
Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install extra plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after installation is successful …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options page …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your content.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on Add New …
A page will load in your screen displaying all of the built-in types of charts available.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just download the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.
Once you have done this, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you full control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
- Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
- Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
- Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate the slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
- Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).
Once you’re satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
The new graph or chart will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to easily embed charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to your posts or pages.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the element you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
After you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After updating the page, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your post or page displays your chart in your content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile browsing …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is a real time-saving feature of the plugin if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add appealing and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts with WP Visualizer.
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
***