How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex data.

Using charts and graphs can help to break up long text passages, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages or relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand your information.

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

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages? This tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is responsive for mobile viewers

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add the data is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply insert the files and an image into your page or post.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see further down the page), or access and download WordPress Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed dynamic graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 additional add-ons are needed.

The plugin also comes with a variety of charts 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

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 your site’s design. Various 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any extra plugins.

How To Install WP Visualizer

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

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

Locate Visualizer in the search results area and click Install Now …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully 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 admin menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

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

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your content.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

You will be presented with all the types of graphs and charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply use the sample provided with the plugin.

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

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

The plugin will now import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have 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, 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 containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a range of customization settings …

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

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, including:

• 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’re satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a element and adding it to the Library, it’s very easy to add it to your pages or posts.

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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see your graph or chart in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile devices …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with interactive graph information in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add eye-catching and dynamic bar charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

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