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 presenting and explaining complex data.
Using charts and graphs is useful for making data much easier to understand.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize your information.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
If you need to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create appealing and interactive charts to your pages that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Resizes dynamically for mobile browsers
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert your images into your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily embed dynamic bar charts and pie charts into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see further below), or download Visualizer the WordPress plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed appealing charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.
The plugin 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 required.
WordPress Visualizer also provides 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
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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that let you customize their look.
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 additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results area 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 area …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can 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 options page …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …
A visual gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row contains your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample file provided with the plugin.
Once you have created your CSV file, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload your CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now 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, go here:
After importing the data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin displays various customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 Create Chart …
The new graph or chart will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your WordPress content very quickly …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a page or post is quite 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 to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After the page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
You will see your element in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile viewing …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add 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 working with interactive graph data in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create attractive and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.
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