How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex information.
Graphs and charts are a great way to break up long passage of technical information, and make technical or statistical data much simpler to digest.
You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, trends or relationships easily, then graphs and charts let you present the data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly understood.
Charts and graphs help explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
If you need to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create colorful and updateable charts to your WordPress pages that:
- Your visitors can engage with
- Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online source of data
- Resizes dynamically for mobile devices
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 way to add your information is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply insert your image files into your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to add interactive bars and pie graphs to your WordPress pages and posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.
Visualizer Plugin For WordPress
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or access and download WordPress Visualizer here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Visualizer Description
The WP Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert colorful charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 additional plugins are required.
WordPress Visualizer also provides 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
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 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 having to install extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …
In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and click enter …
Locate the item in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …
Click OK to proceed …
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 your admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …
After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.
Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin
To add a chart or graph to the library, click on Add New …
A gallery displaying all the kinds of graphs and charts 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 selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file with the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- The first row includes 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 required …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample CSV file provided 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 your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …
Use the browser to locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports your data and displays 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, check that all of your 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 selected, the plugin will display a number of customization options and settings …
Visualizer 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 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’re satisfied with how your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …
The new chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you add graphs and charts to your pages quickly and easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …
Visualizer Usage
After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to Visualizer, it’s very easy to insert it into posts or pages.
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 Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Select the graph or chart 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 added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …
After publishing your page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …
The chart will show up in the location you specified …
As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for mobile devices …
As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes managing dynamic graph information 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, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create stunning and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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