How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present and explain complex information.
Charts and graphs help to break up long text passages, and make data much easier to grasp.
You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with numbers, percentages and comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize your data.
Charts and graphs help you present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!
If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add appealing and updateable charts to WordPress that:
- Your site visitors can interact with
- Allows you to upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
- Dynamically resizes for mobile users
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present your information is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply insert the image files into your web content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily create interactive bar charts and pie graphs in 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 users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download WP Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert beautiful graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 extra plugins or add-ons are required.
The plugin also comes with a variety of built-in that are optimized to address 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 site’s design. Several options are available for each chart that let you further customize their look.
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 extra plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the entry in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
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 the admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your content.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a graph or chart to the library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …
A visual gallery displaying all of the default types of charts available will come up on your screen.
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 your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row contains your column headings.
- The second row contains the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample CSV file provided 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 the CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import the data 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, go here:
After importing the data, check that all of your 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 options …
The plugin gives you full control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:
- 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 are satisfied with how your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your graph or chart will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to insert charts and graphs into your pages very easily …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …
After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …
Plugin Usage
After creating a graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to a post or page.
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 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 add a shortcode for the element into your content …
Once you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once your post/page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
Your page or post displays your chart in your content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive elements for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert 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 working with interactive graph data in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the plugin.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to insert mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with WP Visualizer.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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