How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts is useful for making data much simpler to understand.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages and comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts allow you to present your information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily processed.

Graphs and charts help you present complex information 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 exactly how to create and add appealing and updatable charts and graphs to your posts and pages that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile device viewing

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (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 and png images and then simply add the images to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bar charts 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 users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we will show you how to do this further down the page), or access and download Visualizer the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching charts and graphs 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 additional components are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also contains 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 a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your web design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

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 your admin menu …

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

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

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A visual gallery displaying all of the types of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file containing the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

Once you have completed this step, select the 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 then click on ‘Open‘ …

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

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

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

The plugin gives you full 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 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 look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

Your new chart or graph 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 allows you to easily embed charts and graphs into your content …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Library, adding it to your content is very 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‘ …

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

This will place a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

You will see your item in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress really easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add stunning and interactive bar charts and graphs to WordPress.

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