How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using charts and graphs is great for making statistical data and information easier to grasp.

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

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

If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add attractive and updatable charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Will dynamically resize for mobile viewing

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display your data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply add your image files to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to insert interactive bar charts and pie charts into 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 that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable information.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained a little further below), or download WordPress Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 contains a variety of built-in optimized for 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 site’s design. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install extra software.

How To Install The Plugin

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

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 the dashboard menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

A page will appear on your screen displaying all the kinds of graphs available.

Select the type of chart or graph 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:

• The first row contains the column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample spreadsheet that comes with the plugin.

Once you have done this, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will now import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …

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, go here:

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

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

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 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 satisfied with how your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress content easily …

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

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

Plugin Usage

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

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

Once you have added your item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

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

You will see the visual element in where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile users …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress really easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert dynamic pie charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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