How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain complex information.
Charts and graphs can help to make technical data simpler and easier to digest.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts let you present the data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily processed.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or an online source of data
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsing
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply insert the images into your content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bar charts and graphs to your 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 beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we explain how to do this further below), or download WordPress Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 additional plugins or add-ons are needed.
The plugin also provides a variety of built-in 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 let you further 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install extra software.
How To Install WP Visualizer
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the item 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 section …
Once the 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 settings …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your posts and pages.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …
A page will load in your screen displaying all of the built-in kinds of charts and 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 pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just download the sample spreadsheet provided 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 hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import the 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, make sure 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 click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays a number of customization options and settings …
The plugin gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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’re happy with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your graph or chart will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After an item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a element and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post or page is really very 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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After the page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page displays the chart in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile viewing …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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