How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining data.
Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data and information more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages or relationships more easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present the information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily processed.
Charts and graphs help present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you need to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create colourful and updateable graphs and charts to your posts that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image into your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bar charts and pie graphs to your WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and insert great-looking graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.
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 add-ons are needed.
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. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 requiring the installation of additional software.
How To Install The Plugin
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A page will load on your screen displaying all of the different kinds of graphs and charts available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you would like to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just use the sample that comes with the plugin.
Next, 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 and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin will display a range of customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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’re satisfied with the way your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …
The chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to easily embed graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a new item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After you have created a graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a page 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the element you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After your post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your graph or chart in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is very convenient if you’re adding dynamic chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add stunning and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs to WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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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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