How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.
Charts and graphs can help to break up long chunks of technical information, and make statistical data and information much simpler to understand.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize the information.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create and add attractive and updatable charts to your pages that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload data from your computer or an online source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile browsing
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the image files into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bar charts and pie charts to WordPress 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 interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (we show you how to do this a little further down the page), or download WP Visualizer the WP free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed colorful and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 extra add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of charts 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 web design. Various options are available for each chart that let you 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once 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 dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options page …
When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your content.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
A visual gallery displaying all the different types of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.
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 that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply download the sample spreadsheet provided with the plugin.
Next, 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 from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display 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, go here:
After importing the 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 click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays various customization options …
Visualizer gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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’re happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your chart or graph will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts very quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to the Library, adding it to a page or post 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‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After updating your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your page or post displays the visual element in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile device viewers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes adding interactive graph data in WordPress really easy.
The plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert appealing and dynamic bar charts and graphs into your WordPress pages and posts.
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