How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present and explain complex information.

Using charts and graphs is useful for making statistical data and information more easily digestible.

You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts let you present your data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly understood.

Charts and graphs help you explain complex information so people can more easily understand it!

If you need to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching and updatable charts and graphs to WordPress that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display this information is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png files and then simply add your image to your page or post.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive charts and graphs, 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 WordPress dashboard (we will explain how to do this further below), or download WP Visualizer the WP plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.

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 plugins are required.

Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts that are optimized to address all your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

The plugin 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. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to further customize their look.

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 requiring the installation of any extra software.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …

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

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A page will appear in your browser displaying all of the built-in types of charts available.

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

The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file with all the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just use the sample file provided 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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, 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 right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin displays various customization settings and options …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total 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 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 a 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 graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very simple to add it to pages or posts.

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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

You will see your element in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts for mobile users …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is very convenient if you’re managing dynamic graph information in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert appealing and interactive pie charts and graphs into WordPress with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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