How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.
Charts and graphs are a great way to break up content with too much text, and make statistical data easier to grasp.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, trends or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Charts and graphs help present complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts? This tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Lets you add graph or chart data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile devices
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display your data is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your pages or posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create dynamic bars and graphs in 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 stunning and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WP plugin that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 additional components are needed.
Visualizer also comes with 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. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to customize their settings.
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 additional software.
How To Install Visualizer
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After the 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 page …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A gallery displaying all the kinds of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains the column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just download the sample file supplied with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, 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‘ …
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 selected …
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 data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization settings …
The plugin gives you complete control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 are satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your new graph or chart will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your WordPress posts very quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
After you have created a element and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to insert it into a post or 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 the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After the page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your page or post will display your item in your content …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile browsers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is great if you’re managing interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs into WordPress.
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