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 and explain complex data.

Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up long or difficult content, and making data simpler and easier to understand.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the data.

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

If you want to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create and add colorful and interactive charts and graphs to your posts that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Lets you add data from your computer or an online data source
• Will dynamically resize for mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply insert your files and an image into your page or post.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add interactive bars and graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

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

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we will show you how to do this further down the page), or download Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed dynamic graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 extra addons are needed.

The plugin 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

Visualizer is a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. A number of 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …

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 will want to publish to your posts and pages.

Visualizer Configuration

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

You will see all the kinds of charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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 and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will now import the data from the CSV file and display 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 the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …

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

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 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 how your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …

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

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you easily embed graphs and charts into your content …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to insert it into your posts and pages.

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‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

Your post or page should display the element in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile users …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re managing dynamic graph information in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of 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 create appealing and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.

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