How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs can help to break up long text passages, and make statistical data and information much easier to understand.
You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add data from your computer or an online source of data
- Dynamically resizes for mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply insert the images into your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bars and pie charts to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see a little further below), or access and download the WP Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.
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 extra plugins are needed.
The plugin 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 a flexible and customizable plugin, 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 customize their look and feel.
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 having to install any extra plugins.
How To Install WordPress Visualizer
From your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …
After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your content.
Plugin Configuration
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on the Add New button …
A visual gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart 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 with the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, 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 download the sample provided with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload a CSV file 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 your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have selected …
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 your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin will display various customization settings …
The plugin gives you total control over your information, 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 a 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 your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts 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, duplicate it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to the Library, it’s simple 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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After publishing the post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
The item will display in your content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile screens …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you add 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 one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with interactive graph data in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create stunning and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.
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