How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining data.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to make statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, trends or comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present your information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly and easily understood.
Charts and graphs help present complex information 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 graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create beautiful and updatable charts and graphs to your WP posts that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert the files and an image into your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to insert dynamic bars and graphs into 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 interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained further below), or download WP Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed dynamic graphs 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 extra add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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 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 allow you to 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install any additional software.
Plugin Installation
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” 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 area …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your posts and pages.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
A visual gallery displaying all the types of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.
Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your 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 correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just use the sample file provided with the plugin.
Once you have completed this step, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step 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 your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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 way your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …
Your chart or graph will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you add charts and graphs to your pages quickly and easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to add it to a post.
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‘ …
Select the element to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
Once you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After updating the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
The chart or graph will show up in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile screens …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert 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 adding interactive graph information in WordPress really efficient.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create great-looking and dynamic pie charts and graphs in WordPress.
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