How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “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 chunks of technical information, and making data simpler to digest.
You can present information with tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends and relationships easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be easily understood.
Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed attractive and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:
- Your web visitors can interact with
- Lets you upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online source of data
- Will dynamically resize for mobile browsing
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply add your image to your content.
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 eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.
WordPress Plugin: Visualizer
Visualizer Plugin URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see a little further down the page), or access and download the WP Visualizer plugin here:
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 embed appealing and mobile-responsive 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 plugins are required.
WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of built-in that are optimized to address all 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. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install extra plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type “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 go ahead …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in your dashboard menu …
This takes you to 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.
Plugin Configuration
To add a new chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
An image 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 with your data …
When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:
- Your first row includes the column headings.
- The 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, just refer to the sample file 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 file and click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin will import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have 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 the data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays various customization settings and options …
Visualizer gives you full control of your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:
- 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 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 the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …
Your new graph or chart will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …
Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress content very quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a graph or chart and adding it to Visualizer, it’s very easy to add it to a post.
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 graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …
After you have added your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After the post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …
You will see your item in the location where you’ve inserted the shortcode …
As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile device users …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add 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 a real time-saving benefit of the plugin if you’re adding interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.
For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add great-looking and interactive charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages.
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