How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up long or boring information, and making data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, trends or comparisons easily, then charts and graphs let you present the information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly understood.
Graphs and charts help you present complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!
If you want to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs to your posts that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile viewers
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display the information is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert the image into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bar charts and pie graphs to your WordPress 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 sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see a little further below), or download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed attractive and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 addons are required.
Visualizer 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 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. A number of options are available for each chart that let you customize their settings.
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 browsers without requiring the installation of any additional software.
How To Install WP Visualizer
From your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
After 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 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 plan to insert into your content.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on the Add New button …
A visual gallery displaying all of the built-in 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 …
The selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes the column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample file that comes 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 the CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …
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, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 how your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …
The chart or graph will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts and pages very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After adding an item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After you’ve created a element and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy 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 would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the element you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing the page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your item will show up in the location where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile viewing …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re adding dynamic graph data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create attractive and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
***