How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting or explaining complex data.
Using graphs and charts is a great way to break up content with loads of text, and make statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize the data.
Charts and graphs help explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed beautiful and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile device browsers
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add this data is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bars and pie charts to WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained further below), or download WP Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 extra plugins are required.
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
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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 having to install any additional software.
How To Install WP Visualizer
From your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once your 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 page …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on Add New …
A page will appear in your screen with all of the different types of charts and graphs 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 lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains 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 contains the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just study 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 the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
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 you have selected, the plugin displays various customization options …
The plugin gives you total control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
The chart or graph 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 easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s very simple to add it to a page.
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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode into your content …
After you have added the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
Once the post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page displays your element in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile users …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is a real time-saving feature of the plugin if you’re working with interactive graph data in WordPress.
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 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 add eye-catching and interactive bar charts and graphs to WordPress.
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