How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Charts and graphs can help to make statistical data more easily digestible.

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

Graphs and charts help you present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages and posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed attractive and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is fully responsive for mobile browsers

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply add your files and an image to your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily embed interactive bar charts and pie charts into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (explained further down the page), or access and download WP Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert appealing and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.

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

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 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 browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …

In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …

Locate Visualizer in the search results screen and click Install Now …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your content.

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs 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 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, ensure that:

• The first row includes the column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. number, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample that comes with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, 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 from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Locate and select your file and click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …

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:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

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 with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a range of customization options and settings …

The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:

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

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your pages easily …

Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by their type …

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to posts or pages 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

After you have finished adding your visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

After publishing your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

The chart or graph will show in the content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile browsers …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with interactive chart data in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a number 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 site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert attractive and dynamic bar charts and graphs into WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.

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