How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting or explaining complex information.
Charts and graphs are a great way to break up long chunks of technical information, and make statistical data a lot simpler to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with numbers, trends and relationships easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present your data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily processed.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to learn how 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 and add beautiful and updateable charts and graphs to your posts that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online data source
- Is responsive for mobile browsing
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing 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 image into your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bars and pie charts to WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (we will show you how to do this a little further down the page), or access and download Visualizer the WP plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with 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
WordPress Visualizer 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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a new graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A page will load on your screen displaying all of the different types of charts and graphs available.
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 containing all 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 the column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. number, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just use the sample CSV file supplied with the plugin.
Next, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays 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 the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
The plugin gives you full control over your information, 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’re happy with how your graph or chart appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new chart or graph will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily insert charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to your posts or pages.
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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After updating the page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your visual element will show in the location where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile viewing …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress very easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create appealing and dynamic pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.
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