How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining complex data.

Using graphs and charts can help to make technical or statistical data more easily digestible.

You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages and comparisons easily, then charts and graphs let you present your information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be easily understood.

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

If you need to learn how to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create great-looking and updateable graphs and charts to your WordPress posts that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsers

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert your image into your post or page.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bar charts and graphs to 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 that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.

Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.

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 additional components are required.

Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in optimized for all 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 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 fully 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any extra software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your dashboard menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.

Plugin Configuration

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

A gallery displaying all of the different kinds of charts available will come up on your screen.

Select the type of chart or graph 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 that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

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

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

The plugin will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that shows you 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, check 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 then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display a range of customization options and settings …

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

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

• 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 are satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

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

Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, it’s very simple 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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will place a shortcode into your content …

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

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

The graph will appear in your content …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile viewers …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is very convenient if you’re managing interactive chart information 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 the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert eye-catching and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages.

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