How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting and explaining complex data.
Using charts and graphs is great for making technical or statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present your information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be easily understood.
Graphs and charts help you present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs to your pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Is fully responsive for viewing on mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display the information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png images and then simply add your images to your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily insert dynamic bars and pie charts into 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 WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (we show you how to do this a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The WP Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.
The plugin 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 needed.
The plugin also contains 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
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 web design. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install extra software.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …
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 graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on ‘Add New’ …
An image gallery displaying all of the default kinds of charts available will load on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just download the sample supplied with the plugin.
Next, 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‘ …
Locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various 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 are happy with the way your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages and posts quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, it’s very easy to insert it into a page or post.
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 your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing your post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
You will see the chart or graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes managing interactive graph information in WordPress very easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add eye-catching and dynamic charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.
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