How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex information.

Graphs and charts are a great way to break up content that contains a disproportionate amount of text, and make technical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the data.

Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert appealing charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile device viewing

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the images to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily insert interactive bar charts and pie charts into WordPress pages and posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download the WP Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed colorful and dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few simple steps.

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 or add-ons are required.

WordPress Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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

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 the look and feel of your website. Several options are available for each chart that let you 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install additional software.

How To Install The Plugin

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in your main menu …

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

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

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.

How To Configure Visualizer

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

An image gallery displaying all of the built-in types of charts available will come up on your screen.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample supplied with the plugin.

Next, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that explains 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 your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display a number of customization options …

Visualizer 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 the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you embed graphs and charts into your pages and posts very easily …

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

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

Plugin Usage

After you have created a graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s simple to add it to a post or page.

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

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

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

Your post or page displays your chart or graph in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile browsers …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is great if you’re working with interactive chart information 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 additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create attractive and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress.

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