How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.
Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data and information simpler and easier to understand.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!
If you want to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and updateable charts to your WordPress posts that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Lets you add data from your computer or an online source of data
- Will resize dynamically for viewing on mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply add the image files to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily insert interactive bar charts and graphs into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further below), or download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert appealing and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 addons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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
Visualizer is 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
An image gallery displaying all of the different kinds of graphs and charts 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 new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row includes 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 CSV file, simply download the sample spreadsheet that comes 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 from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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 your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays various customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you full control over your chart or graph, 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 how your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new graph or chart will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post is really 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‘ …
Find the element you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
Once the post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your visual element will appear in where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile screens …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is very convenient if you’re adding dynamic graph information 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 WordPress Visualizer.
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 create great-looking and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress.
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