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 trying to present or explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is useful for making statistical data and information a whole lot simpler to grasp.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts let you present the data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily understood.
Graphs and charts help you present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add great-looking and interactive graphs and charts to your WP posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add data from your hard drive or an online source of data
- Resizes dynamically for mobile viewing
If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply add the images to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily embed dynamic bar charts and graphs into 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 users 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 updatable data.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed appealing graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.
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.
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
WordPress Visualizer 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 further 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any extra plugins.
How To Install Visualizer
Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results section and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
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 get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
You will be presented with all of the kinds of graphs and charts available.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample supplied with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload the CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import the data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the data, make sure 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 displays a range of customization settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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’re satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …
Your new chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your posts and pages quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
Once you have created a new graph or chart and added it to the Library, adding it to a page or post is 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
Once you have finished adding the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After updating your post/page, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page will display your graph or chart in your content …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile users …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes managing interactive graph data in WordPress very efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create eye-catching and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.
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