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 presenting or explaining data.

Using graphs and charts is a great way to make data much simpler to understand.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and relationships quickly, then charts and graphs let you present your information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be easily processed.

Graphs and charts help you present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add great-looking and interactive charts to your WordPress pages that:

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

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display this data is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the files and an image to your posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bar charts and graphs in 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 that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed great-looking and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 additional components are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also contains 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

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 fully 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 additional software.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

From your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

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

Locate the entry 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 section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

You will be presented with all of the types of charts available.

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

The graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

Once you have completed this step, 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‘ …

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

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization options …

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, 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).

Once you’re satisfied with the way your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a post 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 the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

Once you have finished adding the shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

After your post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

The element will display in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile viewers …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create colorful and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.

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