How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present and explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs is great for making technical data much easier to grasp.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed colorful and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online source of data
- Is fully responsive for mobile viewers
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image files into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add dynamic bar charts and pie graphs to your 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 plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WordPress Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and embed stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.
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 additional addons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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 flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. Various options are available for each chart that let you 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after installation is successful …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once 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 dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options 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 will want to publish to your pages and posts.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
A gallery displaying all of the default types of charts available will come up on your screen.
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 new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample CSV file supplied with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, select your 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‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
After importing the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you complete 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 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 the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …
The new chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your content quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to the Library, adding it to posts and pages is really very 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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
You will see the visual element in where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile browsers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change 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 working with dynamic chart information 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 additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add attractive and interactive pie charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.
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