How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data and information a whole lot simpler to grasp.

You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends and relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand your data.

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

If you want to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create great-looking and interactive graphs and charts to your WP pages and posts that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Lets you add graph or chart data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Will dynamically resize for mobile browsers

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add interactive bar charts and pie charts to WordPress pages and 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 colorful and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.

WordPress 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 or add-ons are required.

Visualizer also contains a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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 web design. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any additional software.

How To Install The Plugin

Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …

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

Locate Visualizer 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 also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your main menu …

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

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

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

Plugin Configuration

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

A gallery displaying all of the types of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just refer to the sample spreadsheet supplied 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 a CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:

• 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 data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 are happy with how your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

Your graph or chart will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts very quickly …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

Once you have created a new graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a post 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 your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

You will see your chart or graph in where you have added the shortcode …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for mobile browsing …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert 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 makes adding dynamic graph information in WordPress very efficient.

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, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert great-looking and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress pages and posts.

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