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 are trying to present or explain data.
Charts and graphs can help to make statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the information.
Charts and graphs help you present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Is fully responsive for mobile device browsers
If you are displaying visual data like pie 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 a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply insert the files and an image into your posts or pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bar charts and pie charts to WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (we will explain how to do this further down the page), or access and download the Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that allows you to create, manage and insert attractive and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.
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 addons are needed.
WordPress 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 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
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 the admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings screen …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to insert into your content.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on Add New …
An image gallery displaying all the kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you would like to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes the column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample supplied with the plugin.
Once you have done this, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have 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 your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays a range of customization settings …
Visualizer gives you complete 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 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 satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
The chart or graph will now 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 embed graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to Visualizer, adding it to a page is really 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once the page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page displays the element in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile device screens …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is a real time-saving benefit of the plugin if you’re managing interactive chart data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add colorful and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs to WordPress.
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***