How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Using charts and graphs is a great way to make data simpler and easier to grasp.

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

Charts and graphs help you present complex data so people can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful WP plugin that allows you to create, manage and insert eye-catching and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:

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

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display your information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image files into your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a great WordPress plugin 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.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 required.

Visualizer 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

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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that let you customize their settings.

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 browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

Locate the entry in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

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

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file with the data you would like to populate your chart or graph 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, timeofday, etc.)

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

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample file provided 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 your CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type 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, see the article below:

• 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 with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your chart or graph, 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 are happy with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts easily …

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

After adding a new item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to add it to a 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 chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

After updating your page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Your post or page should display the graph or chart in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive 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 edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress very efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create appealing and dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress.

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