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 presenting or explaining complex information.
Using charts and graphs can help to make technical data much easier to digest.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages or relationships more easily, then graphs and charts let you present the information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly understood.
Graphs and charts help present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add colorful and interactive charts to your posts that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile viewing
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply insert the image files into your content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bars and pie charts to 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 attractive and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
WordPress Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed appealing and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.
WordPress 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 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 requiring the installation of extra plugins.
How To Install The Plugin
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin …
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 your main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your posts or pages.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a new chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …
A page will load in your screen displaying all the different types of charts and graphs available.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, 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 use the sample that comes 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 the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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 the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control over your chart or graph, 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 …
The new chart or graph will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts and pages very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to the Library, it’s easy to insert it into a post or page.
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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the graph or chart you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
After you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After updating the post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
You will see the item in your content …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is very convenient if you’re adding interactive graph information in WordPress.
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, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create attractive and dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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