How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex data.
Using charts and graphs is useful for breaking up content with a disproportionate amount of text, and making statistical data a lot simpler to understand.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends and relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Charts and graphs help explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress posts and pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert stunning graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload data from your computer or an online source of data
- Is fully responsive for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply add your image files to your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily insert interactive bars and pie graphs into WordPress pages and posts 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 colorful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see further below), or access and download Visualizer the WP plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 additional addons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of charts optimized for 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 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install additional software.
How To Install WP Visualizer
From your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options page …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your posts or pages.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a new graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on Add New …
A gallery displaying all of the built-in kinds of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the chart or graph type 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 that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply use the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.
Next, select the 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 hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data and displays 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options …
Visualizer gives you full control of your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:
- 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 are satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new chart or graph will now be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily embed charts and graphs into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s really simple to insert it into pages and posts.
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‘ …
Find the element to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your page or post should display your chart or graph in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile viewers …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is great if you’re managing dynamic graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers 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, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create great-looking and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
***