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’re trying to present and explain data.
Graphs and charts are a great way to make technical or statistical data much simpler to grasp.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the data.
Charts and graphs help explain complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add eye-catching and updateable graphs and charts to your WP posts that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Is responsive for mobile browsing
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display your information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert the files and an image into your content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bar charts and pie charts to your WordPress posts and pages 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 colorful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (see a little further below), or download the WP Visualizer plugin the WP plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts 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 add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of any additional software.
How To Install WordPress Visualizer
From your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A gallery displaying all of the different types of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row contains the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample CSV file provided with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, 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 hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays 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, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays various customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you complete control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 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 look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The chart or graph will now 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 embed charts and graphs into your WordPress pages quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Library, adding it to a page or post is quite 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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the element you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
You will see the graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile device screens …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of tutorials you can refer to 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, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs to WordPress.
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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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