How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present and explain data.
Using charts and graphs is great for making statistical data a whole lot simpler to digest.
You can present information with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with figures, trends and relationships easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily processed.
Charts and graphs help you present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed appealing and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload data from your hard drive or an online source of data
- Is responsive for mobile users
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display this information is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply add your files and an image to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add dynamic bars and graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and insert stunning and interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 required.
WordPress Visualizer also contains 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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to further 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 requiring the installation of any extra plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress 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 area and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on the Add New button …
A page will appear in your screen with all of the built-in types of charts available.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains 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 includes the series type (e.g. number, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample CSV file provided with the plugin.
Next, 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 import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …
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, 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 correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a number of customization settings …
Visualizer gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 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’re happy with the way your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …
The chart or graph will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your pages very quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After you have created a element and added it to the Library, it’s very easy to insert it into a page or post.
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 graph or chart to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
Once your page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
The visual element will show up in where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile devices …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add 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 is great if you’re adding interactive graph information 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 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 easily add eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs to WordPress.
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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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