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.
Using graphs and charts is a great way to break up long chunks of text, and make technical 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 numbers, trends or relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Charts and graphs help present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful WP plugin that allows you to create, manage and insert dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
- Dynamically resizes for mobile browsers
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to add your data is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert the image files into your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily embed interactive bar charts and pie graphs into WordPress content 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 attractive and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we explain how to do this a little further down the page), or download Visualizer the WP free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WP plugin that lets you create, manage and insert great-looking and dynamic graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.
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 components are needed.
Visualizer also comes with a variety of built-in that are optimized to address 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 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. Various options are available for each chart that let you fully 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 device browsers without having to install any extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your pages and posts.
Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on the Add New button …
A visual gallery displaying all the kinds of graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the chart or graph type 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 to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample file that comes with the plugin.
Once you have done this, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import the data and display it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
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 containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization options and settings …
Visualizer 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 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 satisfied with how your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your chart or graph will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a new item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After you have created a element and added it to the Library, it’s 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 want to insert your visual element into your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
Once the page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your chart will display in where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile screens …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes working with dynamic chart information in WordPress really easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of tutorials you can refer to 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 site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and interactive bar charts and graphs to WordPress.
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