How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain data.

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

You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts let you present your data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily processed.

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

If you want to learn how to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create great-looking and updatable charts to WordPress that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile browsing

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

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

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (see further down the page), or access and download Visualizer the WP free plugin repository using 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 insert stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 additional components are needed.

Visualizer also comes with 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

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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to further customize their settings.

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 web browsers without requiring the installation of any additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

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

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just use the sample CSV file supplied 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 a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn 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 your data, check that all of your 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’ve selected, the plugin displays various customization options and settings …

Visualizer gives you full control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 happy with the way your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress content very quickly …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you have created a new graph or chart and added 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) …

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 chart or graph to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

Your post or page should display your visual element in your content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for viewing on mobile devices …

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

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert stunning and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages.

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