How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data and information more easily digestible.

You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts let you present your data in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily understood.

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

If you need to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create colorful and interactive charts and graphs to your WordPress posts that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is fully responsive for viewing on mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display your information is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the files and an image into 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 WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

Visualizer

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert great-looking graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps.

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 additional addons are needed.

The plugin also contains 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 web design. 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.

How To Install WP Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your pages or posts.

Visualizer Configuration

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

A visual gallery displaying all the different kinds of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …

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

Next, select your 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 click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type 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 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 picked, the plugin displays a number of customization settings and options …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your information, 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’re happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress pages very easily …

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

After an element has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or delete it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a post or page is really very 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the element to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see your graph or chart in the content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is very convenient if you’re working with dynamic chart information in WordPress.

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

For additional 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 add eye-catching and dynamic bar charts and graphs to your WordPress content with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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