How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present or explain data.
Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up long chunks of text, and making data more easily digestible.
You can present data using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and relationships easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the data.
Charts and graphs help explain complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create appealing and interactive graphs and charts to your WordPress pages and posts that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display this information is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply insert your image files into your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to embed interactive bars and graphs into WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this further below), or download WP Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert 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 plugins or add-ons are required.
Visualizer also provides a variety of charts 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
The plugin is also 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 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your posts or pages.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the plugin’s library, click on the Add New button …
A gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.
Select the type of chart or graph 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 all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just download the sample CSV file that comes 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 the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that explains 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 your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization options …
Visualizer gives you total 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 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’re satisfied with how your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new chart or graph will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Library, it’s simple to insert it into a page or post.
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‘ …
Find the element to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode into your content …
After you have added the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After updating the page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your post or page displays your chart or graph in the location where you have added the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer 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 modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is a real time-saver if you’re adding interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use 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 website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert eye-catching bar charts and graphs into WordPress.
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