How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is a great way to make statistical data a lot easier to understand.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present the data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be easily understood.

Charts and graphs help you present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert beautiful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Dynamically resizes for mobile devices

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

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

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (we will explain how to do this a little further below), or access and download WP Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching and dynamic graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks.

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 needed.

Visualizer also provides 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

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. Various options are available for each chart that let you 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of any extra software.

How To Install The Plugin

Inside your WP administration area, 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 area and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

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

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

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

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

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just refer to the sample supplied with the plugin.

Next, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload the 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 the data and display it using the graph/chart type you have selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn 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, make sure that all of the 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 you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization options and settings …

Visualizer gives you full control over 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 the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your posts very quickly …

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

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

Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new chart or graph and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to insert it into posts or 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 chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

The element will show in the location where you placed the shortcode …

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

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is very convenient if you’re managing interactive graph data in WordPress.

The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can use 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 site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add great-looking and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages.

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