How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data much easier to grasp.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts let you present your data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly and easily understood.

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

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile users

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (we will explain how to do this a little further below), or access and download Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 addons are required.

WordPress Visualizer 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

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. Various 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any extra plugins.

How To Install The Plugin

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

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

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 choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your admin menu …

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

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

An image gallery displaying all of the default kinds of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.

Select the graph or chart type 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 with your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• The first row contains the column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, timeofday, etc.)

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

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

Once you have completed this step, 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 computer 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, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

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

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

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full control of 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 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 chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to easily insert graphs and charts into your content …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After you’ve created a graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to insert it into posts and pages.

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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

The chart will appear in your content …

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

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 site. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress very efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.

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