How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

Learn how to create, manage and embed stunning dynamic and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps …

How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

Embed Graphs Into WordPress Posts And Pages

You’ve heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex information.

Charts and graphs can help to break up content with a disproportionate amount of text, and make statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily processed.

How To Create Appealing Graphs And Charts In A WordPress Page Or Post

Charts and graphs help you present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed attractive and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:

  • Your web visitors can interact with
  • Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
  • Is dynamically responsive for mobile device users

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Practical Tip

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present this data is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg and .png images and then simply insert your image into your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add dynamic bar charts and pie graphs to WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

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

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see a little further down the page), or access and download the WordPress Visualizer plugin the WP free plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert attractive and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 extra add-ons are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of charts 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

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. 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install extra software.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

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

WordPress Plugins

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

Install Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Locate the plugin in the search results area and click Install Now

Install Visualizer - WP Plugin

Click OK to proceed …

Install Visualizer

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

Install Visualizer

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Install Visualizer

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library

Install WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

WP Plugins

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options page …

Visualizer

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

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

WP Plugin: Visualizer

A gallery displaying all the different types 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 …

Visualizer

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

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Important

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample file supplied 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 a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

Visualizer

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

Visualizer - WP Plugin

The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Upload CSV File From The Web

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Important

To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:

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

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

Visualizer

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

Visualizer

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).

Visualizer - WP Plugin

Once you’re happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily embed graphs and charts into your content …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Visualizer Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s simple to add it to a post or page.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media

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Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Visualizer - WP Plugin

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

This adds a shortcode into your content …

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

Publishing A WordPress Post

Once your page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Your page or post should display your element in the location you specified …

WP Plugin: Visualizer

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile browsers …

Visualizer

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes working with interactive graph data in WordPress very efficient.

Tutorial

The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to create great-looking and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.

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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)

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