How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting or explaining complex data.

Using graphs and charts is useful for making statistical data and information more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize your information.

Charts and graphs help you present complex information so people can more easily understand it!

If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create eye-catching and updateable charts to your pages that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online source of data
• Is responsive for mobile screens

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the images to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to embed dynamic bar charts and graphs into your WordPress content with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed dynamic graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.

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 extra plugins or add-ons are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in optimized for all 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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to fully customize their look and feel.

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 having to install any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

Locate the entry in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

Once your 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 takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …

When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

To add a chart or graph to the plugin’s library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …

You will see all the different kinds of graphs and 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 open up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you would like to populate your chart or graph with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample file supplied with the plugin.

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

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

The plugin imports the 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, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

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 you’ve selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings …

The plugin gives you total control over your information, 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 happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

The chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages quickly …

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

After a new item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you have created a new chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to pages and posts is very simple.

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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

After the page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

Your page or post displays your graph in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile device screens …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with interactive graph data in WordPress really efficient.

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

For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert stunning and interactive pie charts and graphs into WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

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