How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.
Graphs and charts are a great way to break up long text passages, and make technical data more easily digestible.
You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add great-looking and updateable charts to your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your files and an image into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily embed dynamic bars and pie charts into WordPress pages and posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this a little further down the page), or access and download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive charts 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 additional plugins or add-ons are required.
Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in optimized for 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 site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 web browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
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 selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
A gallery displaying all of the kinds of graphs available will come up on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. number, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample spreadsheet that comes with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, select your 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 computer 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 you have 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 your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a range of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control of your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 a 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 chart or graph will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily insert charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you have created a graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a post or page is really very simple.
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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After your page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page displays your graph in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add great-looking and interactive pie charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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