How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.

Using charts and graphs is great for making statistical data and information 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 and relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret the information.

Charts and graphs help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!

If you want to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add colorful and updatable graphs and charts to your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Dynamically resizes for mobile viewers

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 option is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the image into your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to embed interactive bars and pie graphs into WordPress 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 interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create, manage and embed stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 components are needed.

Visualizer also provides 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 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install any additional plugins.

How To Install The Plugin

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

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

Locate the plugin in the search results section 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 area …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …

After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A page will appear on your screen with all of the built-in kinds of graphs available.

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

The graph/chart type will open up in a new window.

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample CSV file 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 a CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display a number of customization settings and options …

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

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 way your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to easily insert graphs and charts into your content …

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

After adding a new graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, it’s simple to add it to a post or page.

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‘ …

Find the element you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will place a shortcode into your content …

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

After your post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

You will see the graph in the content …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile browsing …

As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert 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 adding interactive chart data in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create stunning and dynamic charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.

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