How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining data.
Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up technical and difficult content, and making technical data much easier to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present the information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly processed.
Graphs and charts help explain complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!
If you want to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create appealing and updateable charts to WordPress that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile viewing
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply insert the images into your pages or posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create interactive bar charts and pie charts in WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that allows you to create, manage and insert colorful and interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps.
WordPress 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 extra addons are required.
Visualizer also comes with 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 also 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. A number of 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 device browsers without having to install extra plugins.
How To Install The Plugin
Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the item 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 page …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in the dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
Plugin Configuration
To add a new graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on ‘Add New’ …
An image 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 …
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 your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure 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 as explained above …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just refer to the sample file supplied with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
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 containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:
- 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 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 way your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …
Your new chart or graph will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts quickly and easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s 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 the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing your post, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your page or post will display your graph or chart in the content …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is very convenient if you’re working with interactive chart information in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress 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 insert colorful pie charts and graphs into WordPress.
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