How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up long text passages, and making technical or statistical data a whole lot simpler to grasp.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand your data.
Charts and graphs help explain complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or an online data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile viewing
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the files and an image to your posts or pages.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to embed dynamic bars and pie graphs into WordPress 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 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 updatable content.
Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see further below), or download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.
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 plugins are required.
Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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
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. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 browsers without having to install additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Click OK to go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
After 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 dashboard menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …
After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure The Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
An image gallery displaying all the different types of graphs available will come up on your screen.
Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row contains 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, simply study the sample spreadsheet supplied with the plugin.
Next, 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 and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the 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 containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control of 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 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 the way your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
The chart or graph will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily embed charts and graphs into your content …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a new element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to posts or pages 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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the element to be added to your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
After you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After publishing your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your element will show in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile browsers …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes managing dynamic graph data in WordPress very easy.
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, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add colorful and interactive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress content.
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