How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up long chunks of text, and making technical data simpler and easier to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize your information.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create colorful and updatable charts to your WordPress pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add graph or chart data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Is fully responsive for mobile viewing
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add your images to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to insert interactive bar charts and pie charts into your WordPress content 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 colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional plugins or add-ons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in optimized for your data visualization needs, including:
- Line chart
- Area chart
- Bar chart
- Column chart
- Pie chart
- Geo chart
- Gauge chart
- Candlestick chart
- Scatter chart
WordPress 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 the look and feel of your website. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to further 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options screen …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your content.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on Add New …
A visual gallery displaying all the different kinds 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 …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, timeofday, 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 supplied with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you full control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
Your chart or graph will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every new 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 content very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a element and adding it to Visualizer, it’s really very simple to add it to pages and posts.
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‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing your page, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
You will see your element in the location where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is a real time-saver if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert eye-catching and interactive pie charts and graphs into your WordPress posts.
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