How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data a whole lot simpler to understand.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, trends and relationships easily, then charts and graphs let you present your data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly and easily understood.

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

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

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Dynamically resizes for mobile viewing

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your images to your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to insert dynamic bars and pie charts into 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 eye-catching and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed colorful graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.

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.

Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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

The plugin 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 web browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

In the Add Plugins screen type search for “visualizer” and hit enter …

Locate Visualizer in the search results screen and click Install Now …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

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 from your admin menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings screen …

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

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to insert into your posts or pages.

How To Configure The Plugin

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

A visual gallery displaying all of the kinds of 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 new window.

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download 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 your CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …

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, 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 new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays various customization settings …

The plugin gives you total control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …

Your new graph or chart will now 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 a moment, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your posts and pages easily …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After you have created a graph or chart and added it to the 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 the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

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

Your page or post displays your graph or chart in where you have added the shortcode …

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

As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress very efficient.

The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs to your WordPress pages with WP Visualizer plugin.

***

***