How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting and explaining data.

Graphs and charts can help to 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 and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present your data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly processed.

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

If you want to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add beautiful and updateable charts to your pages that:

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

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add interactive bars and graphs to 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 beautiful and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful WP plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 required.

WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in that are optimized to address your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

The plugin 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 the look and feel of your website. A number of 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 web browsers without requiring the installation of additional plugins.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

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 takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

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

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

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

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

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

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

The plugin will import the data and display it using the graph/chart type 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 the data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

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, such as:

• 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 are happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, 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 a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

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

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‘ …

Select the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

The graph will display in your content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile devices …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is great if you’re adding interactive chart information in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create beautiful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs in WordPress.

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