How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting and explaining complex information.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up long or difficult content, and making statistical data and information a whole lot easier to digest.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, percentages or relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize the data.
Graphs and charts help explain complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching and interactive charts to your pages that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
- Dynamically resizes for mobile viewing
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add your data is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply insert the images into your pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bars and pie charts in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (we will show you how to do this a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking and dynamic graphs 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 extra 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
WordPress 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 your web design. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of any extra software.
How To Install WordPress Visualizer
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After 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 takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
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 plan to insert into your pages and posts.
Plugin Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A page will load in your browser with all of the different types of charts available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just study the sample supplied with the plugin.
Once you have done this, 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 imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
After importing your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization options and settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:
- 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 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 happy with how your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The new graph or chart will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress content easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After adding a 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 very easy to insert it into your pages or posts.
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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After updating the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
Your post or page will display the item in where you have added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile viewing …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update 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 benefit of the plugin if you’re adding interactive chart data in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to 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 add stunning and dynamic pie charts and graphs to WordPress.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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