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 data.
Graphs and charts can help to break up long passage of technical information, and make technical or statistical data much easier to grasp.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or comparisons easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your data.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!
If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add attractive and updatable graphs and charts to your pages that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Is fully responsive for mobile browsing
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert your files and an image into your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create dynamic bar charts and pie graphs in 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 free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained a little further below), or download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The WP Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert stunning graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.
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 comes with a variety of built-in 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 web design. Various options are available for each chart that let you fully 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.
How To Install The Plugin
Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item 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 section …
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 your main menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to insert into your posts and pages.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A page will appear in your screen with all the types of graphs available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample file supplied with the plugin.
Next, select the 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‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …
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 right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your chart or graph, 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 the 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 graph or chart, click Create Chart …
Your chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts and pages quickly and easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s easy to insert it into a page.
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 your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
Once the page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
The item will display in where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for mobile users …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert great-looking pie charts and graphs into WordPress.
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