How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.

Using charts and graphs is a great way to make statistical data more easily digestible.

You can present information with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize the data.

Charts and graphs help explain complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages and posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and insert stunning graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Will resize dynamically for mobile users

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply add your images to your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create interactive bar charts and pie charts in your WordPress pages and posts 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 eye-catching and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed attractive and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 add-ons are needed.

The plugin also contains a variety of built-in optimized for 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 further 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 requiring the installation of any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once 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 admin menu …

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

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your pages or posts.

Plugin Configuration

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

You will be presented with all of the different kinds of graphs and charts available.

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

The 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, ensure that:

• Your first row contains the column headings.
• The second row contains the series type (e.g. number, date, 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, just refer to the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Next, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload the CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a range of customization settings …

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

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, including:

• 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 satisfied with how your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …

The new chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your posts and pages very easily …

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

After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to your content 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 chart or graph you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

After you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

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

Your page or post will display the chart or graph in your content …

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

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

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

For 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 insert beautiful and interactive bar charts and graphs into WordPress.

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