How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting or explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts is a great way to make statistical data and information simpler and easier to digest.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends and comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your data.

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

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

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
• Will dynamically resize for mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the files and an image into your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add dynamic bars and graphs to 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 beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The WP Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert attractive and interactive graphs and 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 addons are needed.

The plugin also comes with a variety of charts 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 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. 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

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 choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your admin menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A page will appear on your browser displaying all the different types of graphs and charts available.

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

Your graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just download the sample spreadsheet provided with the plugin.

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

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

The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have 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 your 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 correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin will display various customization settings …

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

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 are satisfied with how your graph or chart appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After adding a new chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to a page or post.

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

Next, place your mouse cursor where you want to insert your visual element into your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

After updating the post, click ‘View post’ to see it …

Your page or post displays the element in the content …

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

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is a real time-saving benefit of the plugin if you’re working with dynamic chart information 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 WordPress Visualizer.

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 beautiful and interactive pie charts and graphs into WordPress.

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