How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain data.
Using charts and graphs can help to make technical data easier to understand.
You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize your data.
Charts and graphs help you present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress content? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile viewing
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add your data is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create interactive bars and graphs 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 great free plugin for WordPress users 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 dynamic information.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see a little further below), or access and download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WP Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.
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 extra plugins are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of additional software.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
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 also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
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 content.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
You will see all of the default kinds of graphs available.
Select the chart or graph type 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 that contains 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. string, date, 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, just study the sample file 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 hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization options …
Visualizer gives you full control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:
- General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, 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 appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new graph or chart will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add charts and graphs to your content easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After you’ve created a chart or graph and added it to the Library, it’s easy to insert it into a post or page.
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‘ …
Select the graph or chart to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your chart will display in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile users …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic graph data in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of 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, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.
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