How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.
Charts and graphs are a great way to break up long chunks of text, 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, percentages and relationships quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be easily understood.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress posts? This tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsers
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present this data is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the images to your content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create dynamic bars and pie graphs in WordPress 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 updateable data.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (we explain how to do this a little further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WP plugin that lets you create, manage and insert attractive and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.
The plugin 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.
WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in 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 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. Various 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install extra plugins.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results section 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 …
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 your dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your posts and pages.
Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on Add New …
An image gallery displaying all of the kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample CSV file provided with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type 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, go here:
After importing the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display a range of customization options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control over your information, 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
The new chart or graph will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that every new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to pages and posts is quite simple.
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 the 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 add a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
Once your page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page displays the chart or graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsing …
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 your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is very convenient if you’re adding dynamic chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add attractive and dynamic pie charts and graphs to WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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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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