How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining data.

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

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

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

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress content? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile device browsing

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your files and an image into your post or page.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bars and pie graphs in WordPress 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 stunning and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (see further below), or access and download the Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert attractive and dynamic graphs 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 plugins or add-ons are required.

The plugin also contains 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

Visualizer is a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your web design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you fully 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install extra software.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

From your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your 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 settings …

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

You will see all of the built-in types of graphs available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

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

The plugin imports your data from the CSV file and displays 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, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

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

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

Visualizer gives you total control over 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 happy with how your graph or chart is looking, click Create Chart …

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

Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your pages very easily …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, it’s very easy to insert it into a page or post.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

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

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

Once your page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

Your chart or graph will display in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile device 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 wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress very easy.

The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and dynamic bar charts and graphs to WordPress.

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