How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using charts and graphs is great for making statistical data and information much simpler to understand.

You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with numbers, trends and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them interpret the information.

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

Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed appealing graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or an online data source
• Dynamically resizes for mobile browsers

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 way to display your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert the images into your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create dynamic bar charts and pie graphs in your WordPress content with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

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

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert colorful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 plugins or add-ons are required.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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 your web design. Various 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install extra 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 the item in the search results screen and click Install Now …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

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

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

You will see all of the built-in kinds of charts and graphs available.

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

The selected 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 your column headings.
• The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample file 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 your CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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 chosen …

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin will display a range of customization options …

The plugin gives you complete control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts quickly …

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

After a new graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

After you’ve created a new element and added it to the Library, it’s easy to add it to a post.

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

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

After updating your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Your post or page will display your visual element in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile browsers …

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 the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes managing interactive graph data in WordPress very easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert colorful and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress content with WP Visualizer.

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