How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present or explain data.
Using graphs and charts is a great way to break up long passage of text, and make data simpler and easier to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts let you present data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily understood.
Graphs and charts help you present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsers
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to add the data is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert the files and an image into your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create interactive bar charts and pie charts in WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or access and download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning graphs 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 extra add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in optimized for 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 web design. Several options are available for each chart that let you further 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any extra software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will load on your screen displaying all the types of charts and graphs available.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row contains the column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample spreadsheet provided with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings …
The plugin gives you complete control of your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 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 are happy with how your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every new element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts easily and quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, 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 would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once your page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
The graph or chart will display in your content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is very convenient if you’re adding interactive graph data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create beautiful and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.
***
"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
***