How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting and explaining complex information.
Using graphs and charts is useful for making technical or statistical data a whole lot easier to digest.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with numbers, trends and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present your information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly and easily processed.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Is fully responsive 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), a simple method you can use to present your data is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert the images into your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bar charts and pie charts in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (see further below), or access and download WP Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs and charts 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 extra add-ons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also provides 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 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 site’s design. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to further 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 browsers without having to install any extra plugins.
How To Install Visualizer
From your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installation is successful …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
A page will appear on your browser displaying all of the built-in types of charts available.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. number, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply use the sample spreadsheet supplied with the plugin.
Once you have done this, 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‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your 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 your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 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 graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The graph or chart will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily embed charts and graphs into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to insert it into your posts or pages.
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‘ …
Select the element to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After the post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
The visual element will appear in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive elements for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with interactive chart information in WordPress very efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert stunning and interactive pie charts and graphs into WordPress.
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