How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the information.

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

If you need to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add attractive and updatable charts and graphs to WordPress that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile screens

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create dynamic bars and graphs in 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 sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (see a little further down the page), or download the WordPress Visualizer plugin the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed great-looking and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 extra components are needed.

The plugin also contains a variety of built-in that are optimized to address 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 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 site’s 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the admin menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

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

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your posts and pages.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

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

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

Your selected 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 contains the column headings.
• Your second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)

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

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just study the sample spreadsheet supplied with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, 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‘ …

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

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

The plugin gives you complete 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 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 satisfied with the way your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …

The new graph or chart will be added to the ‘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 easily embed charts and graphs into your content …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After you’ve created a chart or graph and added it to Visualizer, adding it to a page or post is quite 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

After publishing your post/page, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

You will see the item in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, Visualizer lets you 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 managing dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert colorful charts and graphs into WordPress.

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