How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.

Using graphs and charts is a great way to break up long chunks of technical information, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.

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

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

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

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Allows you to add data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is responsive for mobile viewers

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display the data is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply add the image files to your page or post.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bar charts 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 plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin the WP free plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 extra add-ons are required.

The plugin also provides a variety of charts 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

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 site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of additional plugins.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

Locate the plugin in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once 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 dashboard menu …

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

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to insert into your posts and pages.

Plugin Configuration

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

An image gallery displaying all of the different kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.

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

The graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample file that comes 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 your CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays various customization options and 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 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 satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to insert it into a post.

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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the element you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode into your content …

After you have finished adding your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

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

You will see your chart or graph in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes adding dynamic graph information in WordPress really easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add beautiful and dynamic bar charts and graphs to your WordPress posts.

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