How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting or explaining complex information.

Charts and graphs are a great way to break up long text passages, and make statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.

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

If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create eye-catching and interactive graphs and charts to your WP pages and posts that:

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

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert your image into your content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bars and pie graphs in WordPress 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 appealing and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WP Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and embed colorful and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.

The plugin 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 addons are needed.

Visualizer also comes with 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 flexible and customizable, 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 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install extra software.

Plugin Installation

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

In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and click enter …

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After the 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 brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

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

Plugin Configuration

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

An image gallery displaying all of the different types 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 …

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file with the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the requirements above …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just use the sample CSV file that comes 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 your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that explains 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 your data, check 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 have selected, the plugin will display a range 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 many 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’re happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, it’s easy to add it to a post or page.

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 the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see your visual element in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile viewing …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes working with interactive chart data in WordPress very efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add appealing and dynamic charts and graphs to WordPress.

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