How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.

Using charts and graphs is a great way to make statistical data more easily digestible.

You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with numbers, percentages or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the information.

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

If you need to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create colourful and updateable graphs and charts to your posts that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile users

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present your information is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply add your images to your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bars 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 WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see a little further below), or download WP Visualizer the WP free plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert colorful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 plugins are required.

The plugin also provides 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 web design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you further 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install additional plugins.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

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

Locate the entry in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

Once 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 brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …

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 chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on Add New …

A visual gallery displaying all of the built-in 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 …

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, make sure that:

• Your first row contains your column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, 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 study the sample 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 the CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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 selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin will display various customization options …

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

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:

• General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, 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’re happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

Note that each new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your WordPress posts easily and quickly …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to posts or pages 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find 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 …

After you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

Once the page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

The chart will show in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is great if you’re adding dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

For 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 create stunning and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer.

***

***