How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs is a great way to break up content that contains a disproportionate amount of text, and make technical data simpler and easier to grasp.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with numbers, trends or relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand your information.
Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you need to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create and add colourful and interactive charts to WordPress that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile devices
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the images into your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bars 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 free plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and dynamic 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 inside your WP dashboard (we will show you how to do this a little further below), or access and download WordPress Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.
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 addons are needed.
The plugin 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
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 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.
How To Install Visualizer
From your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your pages or posts.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on ‘Add New’ …
A visual gallery displaying all the types of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the chart or graph type 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 that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains the series type (e.g. number, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just study the sample file supplied 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 and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data 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 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 your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display various customization settings …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete 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 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’re happy with how your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you easily embed graphs and charts into your content …
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 it, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After you have created a new element and added it to the Library, it’s really very simple to add it to pages and posts.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
Once the page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
The element will appear in where you have added the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile viewers …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you 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 is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re adding dynamic chart information in WordPress.
The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert stunning pie charts and graphs into WordPress.
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***