How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting and explaining data.
Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up long chunks of text, and making statistical data and information simpler to grasp.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs let you present information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily processed.
Charts and graphs help present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert attractive and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:
- Your visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your computer or an online data source
- Will resize dynamically for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert the images into your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bars and graphs to your WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.
Visualizer – WordPress Plugin
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or download the Visualizer plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert great-looking and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 components are needed.
Visualizer 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
Visualizer is flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from the admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options screen …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
Visualizer Plugin Configuration
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A gallery displaying all of the built-in kinds of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.
Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just study the sample that comes 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …
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 your data, make sure 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 have selected, the plugin will display various customization options and settings …
The 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your graph or chart will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your content easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …
After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to add it to pages or 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 your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the element you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have added the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
Once your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page displays the graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile viewers …
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 throughout your site. 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 series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert attractive and interactive pie charts and graphs into your WordPress content with WordPress Visualizer.
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