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 are trying to present and explain complex data.
Using charts and graphs is useful for making statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the information.
Charts and graphs help you present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!
If you need to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add attractive and updatable charts to your posts that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsers
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply add the image to your post or page.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add dynamic bar charts and pie charts to your WordPress content 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 stunning and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.
WP Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or access and download Visualizer the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed appealing and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 addons are required.
WordPress 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 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 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.
How To Install WordPress Visualizer
Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard 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 Install Now …
Click OK to continue …
Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
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 main menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …
When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.
Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your pages or posts.
Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on the Add New button …
A visual gallery displaying all of the default kinds of charts and graphs 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 lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- The first row includes your column headings.
- Your second row includes the series type (e.g. number, 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, simply refer to the sample file supplied with the plugin.
Once you have done this, select the 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import your 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, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you total control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many 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’re satisfied with the way your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …
The new graph or chart will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to easily embed graphs and charts into your content …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Plugin Usage
Once you’ve created a graph or chart and added it to the Library, adding it to a page is really very simple.
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‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have finished adding your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
Once your post/page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …
Your post or page should display the item in the content …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile screens …
As you can see, WordPress 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 website. This makes managing dynamic graph information in WordPress really efficient.
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 Visualizer.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to create beautiful and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress.
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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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