How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present and explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs is great for making statistical data a lot easier to digest.
You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present the information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly processed.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add eye-catching and updateable charts and graphs to your WordPress pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Will resize dynamically for mobile viewers
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display the information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply add the images to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bars and pie charts in your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.
Visualizer – WP Plugin
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see a little further down the page), or access and 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 embed eye-catching graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.
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 add-ons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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 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. A number of 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install any extra software.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can 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 page …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your pages or posts.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will load on your browser with all of the default types of graphs and charts available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- The 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 data CSV, simply download the sample file that comes with the plugin.
Next, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your 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 your data, make sure that all of your 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 selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 how your chart or graph is looking, click Create Chart …
Your new chart or graph will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your pages easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, adding it to posts or pages 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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After publishing your post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page displays your element in the content …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile viewers …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you 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 makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create colorful and interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer.
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