How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining complex data.

Using charts and graphs is great for breaking up content that has a disproportionate amount of text, and making technical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts let you present the information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be easily understood.

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

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

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile users

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bars and graphs in WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

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

WordPress 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 add-ons are required.

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

WordPress 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 the look and feel of your website. A number of options are available for each chart that let you further 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

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

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

Locate the entry in the search results section 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 area …

After 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 main menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …

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 posts and pages.

Visualizer Configuration

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

A page will appear on your screen with all the different types of charts available.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file containing your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just use the sample supplied with the plugin.

Once you have done this, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will 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 step-by-step tutorial that explains 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 the data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

Visualizer gives you full control over your information, 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 happy with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After adding a chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to Visualizer, it’s simple to add it to posts or pages.

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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will place a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see your visual element in the content …

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

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 throughout your website. This is a real time-saving feature of the plugin if you’re working with interactive graph data in WordPress.

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

For additional 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 easily create attractive and interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress.

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