How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain complex data.

Using charts and graphs is useful for making data a lot easier to digest.

You can present information with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages or relationships easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the data.

Charts and graphs help you present 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 like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching and updatable charts and graphs to your WP posts that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Will dynamically resize for mobile screens

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present the information is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert your files and an image into your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily embed interactive bars and pie charts into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (see further below), or download WP Visualizer the WP 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 interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 plugins are required.

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

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. 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 device browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

In the Add Plugins screen type in “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …

When you first install 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 display in your content.

Plugin Configuration

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

An image gallery displaying all of the built-in kinds of charts and graphs available will come up on your screen.

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

The 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:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just use the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you 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, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays various customization settings …

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

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:

• General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, 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 your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …

Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you easily insert charts and graphs into your content …

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

After a new item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

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

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element 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 added the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

Once the page/post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

Your graph or chart will show in the content …

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

As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is very convenient if you’re working with dynamic chart data in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create stunning and interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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