How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs is useful for making statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily processed.
Charts and graphs help you present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and updatable charts and graphs to WordPress that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Is responsive for viewing on mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply add your image to your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bar charts and pie graphs in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see a little further below), or download WP Visualizer the WordPress plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and embed dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 required.
Visualizer also provides 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 your web design. A number of 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.
How To Install The Plugin
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installation is successful …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a new chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A visual gallery displaying all the kinds of graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you want 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 includes the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample spreadsheet supplied with the plugin.
Once you have done this, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload a 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 will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have 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 your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization options and settings …
Visualizer gives you full control over your information, 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 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 satisfied with the way your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …
Your new chart or graph will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages very easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After adding a chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post or 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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the element you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
After you have finished adding your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your chart or graph will show up in your content …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile browsing …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes adding interactive chart information in WordPress very efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create great-looking and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress.
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org
***