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 data.

Charts and graphs are a great way to make statistical data simpler to understand.

You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present the information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily understood.

Charts and graphs help you present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add great-looking and updatable charts and graphs to your WP posts and pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or an online data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply add your files and an image to your site content.

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 free 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 dynamic information.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WP plugin that lets you create, manage and insert interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional components are needed.

Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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

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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

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 from your main menu …

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

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

Plugin Configuration

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

A page will load on your screen displaying all of the default kinds of charts and graphs available.

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

The graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just download the sample CSV file supplied 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‘ …

Locate and select your data 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 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, 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 click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …

Visualizer gives you complete control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 the 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 look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily embed graphs and charts into your content …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After you’ve created a graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a post is quite 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 Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

You will see your graph in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert 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 site. This makes adding dynamic graph information in WordPress really efficient.

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

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 create colorful and dynamic charts and graphs in WordPress.

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