How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present or explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data simpler to digest.
You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize your data.
Graphs and charts help you present complex information so people can more easily understand it!
If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add colorful and interactive graphs and charts to your posts that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you add graph or chart data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Is responsive for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply add the files and an image to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bar charts and pie charts to WordPress posts and pages 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 eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this a little further down the page), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert colorful and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 extra plugins or add-ons are needed.
Visualizer also provides 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
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 site’s 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A page will appear in your screen displaying all of the different kinds of charts available.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row contains the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. number, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply refer to the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.
Next, select your 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
To learn 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a range of customization 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 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 happy with the way your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The graph or chart will now be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After you’ve created a element and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a post or page 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 your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode into your content …
After you have finished adding your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After your page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your chart or graph in the content …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile browsing …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes working with interactive graph data in WordPress really easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs to WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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