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 presenting or explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts can help to make data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or comparisons easily, then charts and graphs let you present information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be easily processed.

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

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to create, manage and insert stunning and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Allows you to add graph or chart data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Will resize dynamically for viewing on mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image files into your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to insert dynamic bar charts and pie charts into your WordPress posts and pages 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 attractive and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 plugins or add-ons are needed.

The plugin also comes with 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

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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that let you further 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of any additional software.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

Locate the plugin in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

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 takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

After installing 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 insert into your posts and pages.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

You will be presented with all the kinds of graphs and 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 your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• The first row includes your column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. string, 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 download the sample file provided 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 your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type 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, go here:

• 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 with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

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

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control of 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 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 are satisfied with how 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 in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts easily …

Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …

After a new element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a element and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post is really 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 your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

After updating your page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Your page or post should display the chart or graph in your content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for mobile viewing …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin 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 website. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re managing dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert eye-catching and dynamic bar charts and graphs into WordPress.

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