How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex information.
Using charts and graphs can help to break up content containing lots of text, and make statistical data more easily digestible.
You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.
Graphs and charts help you present complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!
If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create colourful and interactive charts to your pages that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Lets you add graph or chart data from your computer or a web-based data source
- Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsing
If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing 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 images and then simply add your image files to your site content.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily add interactive bars and pie charts to your WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer from the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Plugin Description
The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert stunning charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.
The plugin 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.
Visualizer also provides a variety of charts 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
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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install additional plugins.
Plugin Installation
Inside your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …
Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …
This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on the Add New button …
You will be presented with all of the built-in kinds of charts available.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains 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. string, timeofday, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …
If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just download the sample 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 your CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to 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 your 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 click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …
The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, including:
- 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 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 …
The new graph or chart will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages quickly …
Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …
After a new item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to add it to your posts and pages.
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 the content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …
This inserts a shortcode into your content …
Once you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …
After your page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …
You will see your item in the content …
As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for viewing on mobile devices …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is very convenient if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.
The plugin developers have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create attractive and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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