How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining data.

Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data and information more easily digestible.

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

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

If you want to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching and updatable charts and graphs to your posts that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or an online source of data
• Is responsive for viewing on mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present your data is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

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

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download WordPress Visualizer the WordPress plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert attractive and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional add-ons are needed.

The plugin also comes with a variety of charts optimized for all 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. Various 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 browsers without having to install extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

Locate the plugin in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the dashboard 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 the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your content.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

An image gallery displaying all of the different types of graphs available will come up on your screen.

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

The graph/chart type will pop 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:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample CSV file that comes 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 the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type 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 the data, check 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’ve selected, the plugin displays a range of customization options and settings …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

After a new chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you have created a element and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a page is really simple.

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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

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

Once the page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

You will see your visual element in your content …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile viewing …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes managing interactive chart information in WordPress very easy.

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

For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add great-looking and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.

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