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 are trying to present and explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data much easier to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, percentages and relationships quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present your information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be easily processed.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Dynamically resizes for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply add your image to your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create dynamic bars and graphs in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (see a little further down the page), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed stunning charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.
WordPress 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 components are needed.
WordPress Visualizer 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
Visualizer is flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any additional software.
How To Install WP Visualizer
Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your main menu …
This takes you to 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 the library.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
An image gallery displaying all of the built-in kinds of graphs 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 selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes the column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample spreadsheet that comes with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, 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‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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, go here:
After importing the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display a number 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 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’re satisfied with how your chart or graph appears, click Create Chart …
The new graph or chart will now be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you embed graphs and charts into your pages quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to pages or posts 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 the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
Once the page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page will display the element in your content …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsing …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert 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 makes adding dynamic graph data in WordPress really easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create appealing and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org
***