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 is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining complex data.

Using charts and graphs is great for making technical data much easier to understand.

You can present data using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your information.

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

If you want to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create colourful and updatable graphs and charts to your WordPress pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your hard drive or an online data source
• Will dynamically resize for mobile browsing

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display your data is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the image to your posts or pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bars and pie charts 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 stunning and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see further down the page), or download Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

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

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 extra plugins or add-ons are required.

Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts 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

Visualizer is 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. Several options are available for each chart that let you further 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install extra software.

Plugin Installation

From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the main 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 the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your content.

How To Configure The Plugin

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

An image gallery displaying all of the default 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 …

Your graph/chart type will open up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains the data you would like to populate your chart or graph with …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• Your first row includes your column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, timeofday, etc.)

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

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, just refer to the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Once you have done this, 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 hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import your data and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously 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 the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you full 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 are happy with how your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Plugin Usage

After creating a new element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very 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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

After your post/page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

You will see the item in your content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile device viewing …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes adding dynamic chart information in WordPress very easy.

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

For 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 attractive and mobile-responsive pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts with WP Visualizer plugin.

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