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 are trying to present and explain complex information.

Using charts and graphs is useful for making technical or statistical data a lot simpler to digest.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs let you present your information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily processed.

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

If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add great-looking and updateable charts to your posts that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Is responsive for viewing on mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply add the files and an image to your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further below), or download WP Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 add-ons are needed.

Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in 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

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 your web design. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

A gallery displaying all the different kinds of graphs available will come up on your screen.

Select the type of chart or graph 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 containing all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample supplied with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, 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 and data 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 from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …

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

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

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, 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 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 satisfied with how your graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …

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

Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to embed graphs and charts into your posts easily and quickly …

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

After adding a chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer 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 would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

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

The item will appear in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, Visualizer lets you 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 one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re managing interactive graph information in WordPress.

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

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 mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

***

***