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 are presenting or explaining complex data.

Using charts and graphs is useful for breaking up long passage of technical information, and making technical data easier to grasp.

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

Graphs and charts help present complex information so people can more easily understand it!

If you want to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create eye-catching and updateable charts and graphs to your pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Lets you add graph or chart data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Is responsive for mobile screens

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add your information is to create the graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png files and then simply insert your image into your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable data.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or access and download WordPress Visualizer the WP plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

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

The plugin 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.

The plugin also provides a variety of charts 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 your site’s design. 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

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 selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the dashboard menu …

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

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

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

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

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

Select the type of graph or chart 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 your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• Your first row contains the 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 not sure how to format your CSV file, just study the sample CSV file that comes 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 a CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports your data and displays 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, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

Visualizer gives you complete control of your chart or graph, 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 satisfied with how your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this allows you to insert charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages quickly …

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

After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, adding it to a post 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 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 adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

After publishing your page, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

The graph or chart will appear in where you have added the shortcode …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes managing interactive graph data in WordPress really easy.

The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create attractive and interactive charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

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