How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present and explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up technical and difficult text, and making statistical data easier to grasp.
You can present data using tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with figures, trends or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize your data.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile browsers
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present your information is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image files into your posts or pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bar charts 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 free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we will explain how to do this a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin the WP plugin repository using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and embed appealing charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 plugins or add-ons are needed.
Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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 further 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any extra software.
How To Install Visualizer
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …
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 dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
A visual gallery displaying all the types of graphs available will come up on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload the CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …
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, see the article below:
After importing your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a range of customization settings …
The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your graph or chart 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 in just a moment, this allows you to easily insert graphs and charts into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a new chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a page is really very 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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your post or page displays your graph in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile screens …
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 your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes working with interactive chart information in WordPress very efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer.
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
***