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 or explaining complex data.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to break up content that contains a disproportionate amount of text, and make technical or statistical data a whole lot easier to digest.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with figures, trends and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the data.
Charts and graphs help present complex information 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 stunning and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Is dynamically responsive for viewing on mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display the information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the image to your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bar charts and graphs to WordPress pages and posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see a little further below), or download the Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.
The plugin 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 components are needed.
Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in that are optimized to address 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 a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match the look and feel of your website. A number of 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your pages and posts.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will appear on your screen displaying all the different kinds of charts available.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply download the sample provided 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 the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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 your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays a range of customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your graph or chart will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to easily insert charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After an item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to insert it into a page.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like 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 on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
After you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
The visual element will show up in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile device browsing …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin 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 is a real time-saver if you’re working with interactive chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert beautiful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress pages.
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