How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present and explain complex data.
Graphs and charts help to break up content that has lots of text, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize the data.
Graphs and charts help you present complex data so people can more easily understand it!
If you want to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add eye-catching and updatable charts and graphs to your pages and posts that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Will dynamically resize for mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to add the data is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add your image files to your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create interactive bars and pie charts in your WordPress pages and posts 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 great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs 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 extra components are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with 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 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 having to install extra software.
How To Install Visualizer
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings screen …
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 insert into your pages or posts.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on Add New …
You will be presented with all of the built-in kinds of charts and graphs available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains all the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply use the sample supplied 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 your CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have 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, see the article below:
After importing your data, check 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 click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a range of customization options …
Visualizer gives you complete 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 are happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your new graph or chart 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 very soon, this allows you to embed graphs and charts into your WordPress content quickly and easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to add it to posts or pages.
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 the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After the page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page will display the chart in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is great if you’re working with interactive chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert beautiful bar charts and graphs into WordPress.
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