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’re presenting and explaining data.
Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with numbers, trends or relationships easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand your data.
Graphs and charts help present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress posts and pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based source of data
- Resizes dynamically for mobile viewing
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to add the information is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply add your image files to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bar charts and graphs to WordPress 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 eye-catching and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see further below), or access and download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.
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 add-ons are needed.
Visualizer 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 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 the look and feel of your website. Various 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any additional software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
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 the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on Add New …
A page will load on your screen with all the types of graphs available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.
Next, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type 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, 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 data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays various customization settings and 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, such as:
- 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 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 graph or chart looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new chart or graph will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
Once you have created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to your content.
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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing the page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
You will see the graph in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile device screens …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin 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 managing interactive graph data in WordPress very efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add beautiful and interactive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages.
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