How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain data.

Charts and graphs can help to make technical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends or comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret your information.

Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

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

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
• Dynamically resizes for viewing on mobile devices

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg or .png files and then simply add your image to your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create interactive bars and pie graphs in your WordPress pages 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 eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert great-looking and dynamic charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 that are optimized to address 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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

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

Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A page will appear in your screen displaying all the types of graphs and charts available.

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

Your graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply download the sample file 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 a CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …

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 your data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays a number of customization options …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control over your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 chart or graph, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a element and added it to Visualizer, it’s simple to insert it into your posts and pages.

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 graph or chart to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see the item in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile viewers …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the 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 plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

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

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