How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present or explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is great for making technical or statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Graphs and charts help present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add great-looking and interactive graphs and charts to your pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add data from your computer or an online data source
- Dynamically resizes for mobile devices
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display the data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert your image files into your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this further below), or download the WP Visualizer plugin here:
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 insert colorful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.
Visualizer 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 needed.
The plugin also provides a variety of charts optimized for 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 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 web design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of additional plugins.
How To Install WordPress Visualizer
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the entry in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the plugin’s library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
An image gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your 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, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just download the sample CSV file supplied with the plugin.
Next, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
After importing the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a range of customization options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:
- General Settings – Configure chart title settings, 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 look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new chart or graph will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your WordPress pages very easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After you have created a new element and added it to the Library, it’s quite simple to add it to a page or post.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you want to insert your visual element into your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
After you have added the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your item in your content …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile viewers …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is great if you’re working with dynamic chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert great-looking bar charts and graphs into your WordPress posts with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***