How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting and explaining data.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to make technical data more easily digestible.
You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with numbers, percentages or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your information.
Graphs and charts help you present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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
- Dynamically resizes for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply insert your files and an image into your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create dynamic bar charts and pie charts in your WordPress 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 beautiful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (we will explain how to do this a little further below), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and embed great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 plugins or add-ons are needed.
The plugin also provides 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. A number of 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.
How To Install Visualizer
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …
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 the dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
You will be presented with all the different types of graphs and charts available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. number, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just use the sample supplied with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 how your graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …
The new graph or chart will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to easily insert charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you have created a new graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to your content is really very 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 element you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once the post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your page or post should display the item in your content …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile screens …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin 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 website. This makes managing dynamic chart data in WordPress very easy.
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 the plugin.
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 create colorful and dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress.
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