How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present or explain complex information.

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

You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present the information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily processed.

Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online data source
• Is responsive for mobile users

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply insert the images into your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create interactive bars and graphs in WordPress content with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning 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 (see further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed mobile-responsive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 extra plugins or add-ons are needed.

Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in that are optimized to address all 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 the look and feel of your website. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to further 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install extra plugins.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once 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 settings screen …

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

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

You will see all of the different kinds of graphs available.

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

Your graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample file supplied with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn 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, make sure that all of your 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 picked, the plugin will display a range of customization settings and options …

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

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:

• 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 are happy with how your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a graph or chart and adding it to Visualizer, it’s easy to add it to a post.

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 add to your content and click 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 page or post …

After your page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

The item will display in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …

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

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to 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 site. This makes managing dynamic chart data in WordPress very easy.

The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.

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 create beautiful and interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer.

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