How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain data.
Using charts and graphs is useful for breaking up content that has a disproportionate amount of text, and making statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the information.
Charts and graphs help you present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add attractive and updateable charts and graphs to your WP posts that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Lets you add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsing
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply add your image files to your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add dynamic bar charts and pie graphs 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 appealing and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or access and download Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed appealing and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 components are needed.
Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in optimized for 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 the look and feel of your website. Several 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results screen 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 section …
Once your 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 options page …
When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
You will be presented with all the kinds of charts available.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row contains the column headings.
- The second row includes 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 CSV file, just refer to the sample file provided 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 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 from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type 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 your data, make sure that all of your 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 displays a range of customization settings …
Visualizer gives you full control of 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 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 are satisfied with the way your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …
The new chart or graph will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a element and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post or page is really 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‘ …
Select the graph or chart to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After updating the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
You will see the graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile users …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes managing interactive chart information in WordPress really easy.
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 additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create appealing and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress with WP 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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