How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain data.
Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up content containing loads of text, and making statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret the information.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present the data is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image files into your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to insert dynamic bar charts and pie graphs into 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 appealing and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.
Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see further below), or access and download WP Visualizer the WordPress plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps.
WordPress Visualizer 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 plugins or add-ons are required.
The plugin also contains 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. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to further 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 browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your pages or posts.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will appear on your browser displaying all of the different types of graphs 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 lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row contains 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 requirements above …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just use the sample file that comes with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, 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 and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file 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 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 then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization settings …
Visualizer gives you total control over 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 satisfied with the way your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your 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 a moment, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your pages and posts very easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to posts or pages 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 insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After the post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page displays the visual element in the location where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile device browsing …
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 your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes managing interactive chart data in WordPress very easy.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create appealing and dynamic charts and graphs in WordPress.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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