How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex data.

Using graphs and charts is a great way to make technical or statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with numbers, percentages or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present the data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly and easily processed.

Charts and graphs help you present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile browsing

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply add your files and an image to your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add dynamic bars and graphs to your WordPress 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 great-looking and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (explained further below), or download the WP Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert great-looking and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 add-ons are required.

Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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

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. A number of 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …

Locate the plugin in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your admin menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to publish to your pages and posts.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

To add a new chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …

A gallery displaying all of the built-in types of graphs available will come up on your screen.

Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

Your graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• Your first row contains your column headings.
• Your second row contains the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample file provided 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 the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, check that all of the 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 selected, the plugin displays a number of customization options …

The plugin 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 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 graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …

Your new graph or chart will now be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that each visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages quickly and easily …

Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …

After adding an item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a new element and adding it to Visualizer, 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 want 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 on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

Once you have added your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

Once your post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

You will see the chart or graph in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsing …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes working with interactive graph information in WordPress very efficient.

The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add stunning and dynamic charts and graphs to your WordPress pages.

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