How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex data.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up long or boring information, and making statistical data and information much easier to understand.
You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages and comparisons easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Charts and graphs help explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your site visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile viewers
If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert your image into your pages or posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily embed interactive bars and pie 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 plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the WordPress Visualizer plugin from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert great-looking graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.
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 additional components are required.
The plugin also comes with 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
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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to customize their look and feel.
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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install additional software.
Plugin Installation
From your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …
Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to go ahead …
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 choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings screen …
When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a new graph or chart to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
An image gallery displaying all the different kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure 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 above requirements …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample spreadsheet 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 a CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:
After importing the 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 then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a number of customization settings …
The 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 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 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 are satisfied with the way your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …
Your graph or chart will now be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your content easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
After creating a graph or chart and adding it to Visualizer, adding it to pages and posts is 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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will place a shortcode into your content …
Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing the post, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your chart or graph in where you placed the shortcode …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers 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, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create great-looking and dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.
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