How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting and explaining complex data.
Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up content with a disproportionate amount of text, and making statistical data and information a whole lot simpler to grasp.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts let you present the data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly processed.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
If you need to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs to your posts that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile devices
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present your data is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into 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 pie graphs in your WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (see a little further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 components are needed.
The plugin also comes with 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 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 site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 web browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
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 choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your pages or posts.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will load on your browser displaying all of the types of graphs available.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. number, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample spreadsheet 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 the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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, see the article below:
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 with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you full control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new chart or graph will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your posts and pages easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
After you have created a chart or graph and added it to the Library, it’s quite simple to add it to your content.
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 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 adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
You will see the chart or graph in the location where you have inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes working with dynamic graph information in WordPress very 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 WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add colorful and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages.
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"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)
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