How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using charts and graphs can help to make data simpler and easier to digest.

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

Graphs and charts help explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is responsive for mobile devices

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply insert your images into your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create interactive bar charts and pie graphs in your WordPress pages and posts 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 that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we will explain how to do this further below), or access and download Visualizer from the link below:

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 appealing graphs 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 extra add-ons are required.

WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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 the look and feel of your website. Several options are available for each chart that let you further customize their look and feel.

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 browsers without having to install any additional software.

How To Install Visualizer

Inside your WordPress 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 screen and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.

Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your content.

Visualizer Configuration

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

An image gallery displaying all the different kinds of graphs available will load on your screen.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains 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 your column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. number, date, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just use the sample 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 a CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

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 the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization options …

The plugin gives you complete control over your information, 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add charts and graphs to your pages and posts very quickly …

Charts and graphs 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, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to add it to 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the graph or chart to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

After updating your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see it …

You will see the graph in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you 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 makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress really efficient.

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

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 add stunning and interactive charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer.

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