How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to make technical or statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages and relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your information.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Lets you add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Dynamically resizes for mobile users
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present the data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image into your posts or pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create dynamic bars and pie graphs in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see a little further below), or download Visualizer the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 required.
WordPress Visualizer 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
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 site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.
How To Install Visualizer
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar 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 installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your pages or posts.
How To Configure Visualizer
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on Add New …
A gallery displaying all of the default types of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes the column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply refer to the sample spreadsheet supplied 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 your CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a 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, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays various customization settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 are happy with how your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …
The new chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts very easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After you have created a new chart or graph and added 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‘ …
Select the chart or graph to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
You will see your graph or chart in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile device browsers …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert 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 managing dynamic graph information in WordPress very efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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