How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain data.
Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up content containing a disproportionate amount of text, and making technical or statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages and comparisons easily, then charts and graphs let you present your data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily understood.
Charts and graphs help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based source of data
- Dynamically resizes for mobile device viewers
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply add your image files to your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily insert interactive bars and graphs into your WordPress pages and posts 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 sites 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 dynamic information.
Visualizer – WP Plugin
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download the WP Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.
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 add-ons are required.
WordPress Visualizer also contains 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
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. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 device browsers without requiring the installation of extra plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once your 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 settings …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your posts and pages.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …
A gallery displaying all of the default types of charts available will come up 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 with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. number, date, 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, just study the sample spreadsheet that comes 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‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type 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 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 then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a number of customization settings and options …
Visualizer 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 chart title settings, 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 way your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new graph or chart will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After adding an item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After you have created a new chart or graph and added it to Visualizer, it’s simple to insert it into your posts or pages.
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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the graph or chart 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 your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After publishing the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your chart will display in where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile browsing …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is a real time-saving feature of the plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert stunning charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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