How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain data.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to break up long or boring text, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.
You can present information with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and comparisons easily, then graphs and charts let you present your data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly and easily processed.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!
If you need to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create colourful and updateable charts to your WP pages and posts that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile viewing
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 to add this information is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply add the files and an image to your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to embed interactive bar charts and graphs into your WordPress content 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 attractive and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (we will show you how to do this further below), or download the WP Visualizer plugin the WP free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 add-ons are required.
The plugin also comes with a variety of charts optimized for all 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. Several 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install additional software.
How To Install Visualizer
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your pages and posts.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
A page will load in your screen displaying all of the kinds of charts available.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample supplied with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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 the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 are happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
Your chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your content very easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to insert it into posts or pages.
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 insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After updating the page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your graph or chart will appear in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile viewing …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is very convenient if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages.
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