How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex information.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up content that has lots of text, and making data more easily digestible.
You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the data.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create colourful and updateable charts to your WP posts that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your computer or an online data source
- Is fully responsive for mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts 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 add the image files to your posts or pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to embed interactive bar charts and pie graphs into WordPress 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 beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the Visualizer plugin the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 extra plugins or add-ons are required.
The plugin also contains 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
The plugin 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 site’s design. A number of 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings screen …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
You will be presented with all of the kinds of charts and graphs available.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected 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, ensure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample CSV file supplied with the plugin.
Next, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have selected …
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 your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin displays various 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 chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new graph or chart will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your posts easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After a new chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
Once you have created a element and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a post or 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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the element to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After the post/page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your chart in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts 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 the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes adding interactive graph information in WordPress really efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert beautiful and interactive charts and graphs into WordPress.
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