How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.
Graphs and charts are a great way to break up long chunks of text, and make data simpler to grasp.
You can present data using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or relationships easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Charts and graphs help present complex data 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 tool that lets you create, manage and insert great-looking charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online data source
- Is responsive for mobile screens
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), a simple method you can use is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the image into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add dynamic bar charts and pie graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (we will show you how to do this a little further down the page), or access and download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.
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 addons are needed.
The plugin also comes with a variety of built-in that are optimized to address 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 site’s design. Various options are available for each chart that let you fully customize their look and feel.
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 device browsers without having to install extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after installation is successful …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your pages or posts.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A visual gallery displaying all the kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you would like to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample file that comes 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 a CSV file 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 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 your 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 correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 are happy with the way your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a page or post is really simple.
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‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After updating your post, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
You will see your graph or chart in the content …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile screens …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes adding interactive chart data in WordPress very efficient.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add eye-catching and interactive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.
***
"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)
***