How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using charts and graphs is useful for making data more easily digestible.

You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand your information.

Graphs and charts help present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!

If you want to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create appealing and updateable graphs and charts to your WP posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Resizes dynamically for mobile browsers

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps.

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 add-ons are needed.

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 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 allow you to fully customize their look.

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 requiring the installation of additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to proceed …

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 from the main menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

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

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

An image gallery displaying all of the different types 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 …

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample file provided with the plugin.

Once you have done this, 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 from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display 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, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin displays a range of customization settings and options …

The plugin 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 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 way your graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, adding it to pages and posts is quite 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the element to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

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

After your post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

You will see your graph or chart in the content …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you add 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 is great if you’re adding dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create stunning and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress.

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