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 trying to present and explain data.

Using charts and graphs is useful for breaking up long and boring text, and making statistical data and information more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages or relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize the data.

Graphs and charts help you present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed beautiful and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or an online source of data
• Will dynamically resize for mobile devices

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bar charts and graphs to your WordPress content 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 eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this further down the page), or access and download WP Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert stunning charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.

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 required.

Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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

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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 browsers without having to install extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

Inside your WP administration area, 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 entry in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your posts and pages.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

You will see all of the built-in kinds of charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• The first row contains the column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just download the sample file supplied with the plugin.

Next, 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‘ …

Locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin will import the data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings …

Visualizer gives you total 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 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 the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you have created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a page 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 the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

After your page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

Your graph will display in your content …

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

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin 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 makes managing dynamic chart information in WordPress really easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create eye-catching and dynamic pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.

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