How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present or explain complex information.

Graphs and charts help to make statistical data more easily digestible.

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

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

If you need to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add colorful and updateable charts to your WP posts that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile screens

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert your files and an image into your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bars and graphs to your WordPress posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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 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 let you 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any extra software.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

In the Add Plugins page type “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 continue …

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 also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …

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

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

A page will load in your screen displaying all the kinds of charts and graphs available.

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

The 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:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just download the sample file 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 a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a 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 picked, the plugin displays a range of customization options …

The plugin gives you complete control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your posts and pages quickly …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After you have created a graph or chart and added it to the Library, 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‘ …

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

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

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

After the post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

You will see the graph in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive elements for mobile browsing …

As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is a real time-saver if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.

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

For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress.

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