How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex information.
Using graphs and charts is a great way to make data simpler to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret the data.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Dynamically resizes for mobile device screens
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply add the image to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to create interactive bar charts and pie charts in WordPress content 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 interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed stunning graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 add-ons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that let you 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 any additional plugins.
How To Install The Visualizer Plugin
Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your pages or posts.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
You will be presented with all of the default types of graphs and charts available.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row contains the column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. number, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just use the sample CSV file provided 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 a 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 will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a 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, check 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 then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin displays various customization options and settings …
Visualizer 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 happy with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new graph or chart will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily embed graphs and charts into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to Visualizer, adding it to posts and pages is very simple.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
After you have finished adding your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once your page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
The chart or graph will show up in the location where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile viewers …
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 throughout your website. This makes working with interactive graph information in WordPress very easy.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert beautiful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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