How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex data.

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

You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret the data.

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

Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert stunning and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Is responsive for viewing on mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option 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 into your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

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

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we explain how to do this a little further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 or add-ons are needed.

The plugin also provides a variety of charts 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 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 let you customize their settings.

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 requiring the installation of additional plugins.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and click enter …

Locate the item in the search results area and click Install Now …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.

How To Configure The Plugin

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

An image gallery displaying all the different kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

Next, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that shows you 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 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 selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings …

Visualizer gives you total control over 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 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 happy with the way your graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, 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 would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

Once you have added your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

After publishing the post/page, click ‘View post’ to see it …

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

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is very convenient if you’re adding interactive chart data in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert great-looking charts and graphs into your WordPress pages and posts.

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