How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting and explaining data.
Using graphs and charts can help to break up long text passages, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages and relationships easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly processed.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Is fully responsive for mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add your images to your page or post.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to embed interactive bars and pie charts into your WordPress posts 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 stunning and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or access and download Visualizer the WordPress plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.
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 additional addons are needed.
The plugin also provides a variety of charts that are optimized to address your data visualization needs, including:
- Line chart
- Area chart
- Bar chart
- Column chart
- Pie chart
- Geo chart
- Gauge chart
- Candlestick chart
- Scatter chart
The plugin is also flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. Several options are available for each chart that let you further customize their look.
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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your posts or pages.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A page will appear on your browser with all the kinds of graphs and charts available.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just download the sample file that comes with the plugin.
Once you have done this, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload your CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
After importing your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display various customization options …
Visualizer gives you total control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:
- 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 are happy with the way your graph or chart appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new graph or chart will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, adding it to pages and posts is really simple.
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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing the post, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see the graph in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile devices …
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 wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re adding interactive chart information in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of tutorials you can use 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 website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert eye-catching and interactive pie charts and graphs into your WordPress posts.
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