How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present and explain data.

Using charts and graphs is a great way to break up content that contains lots of text, and make technical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with figures, trends or comparisons easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand your information.

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

If you want to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create and add eye-catching and interactive charts to your posts and pages that:

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

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your files and an image to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert dynamic charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional add-ons are needed.

Visualizer also contains 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

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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 browsers without requiring the installation of additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …

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

Locate the item in the search results screen 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 your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …

When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.

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 types of charts available.

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

Your 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:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just study the sample spreadsheet that comes with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload a 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 and displays it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that explains 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 new data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin displays a number of customization options and settings …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 the way your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you embed graphs and charts into your WordPress pages and posts 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 its details, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s very easy to insert it into your pages and posts.

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 element you want to add to your content and click the “insert” icon …

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

Once you have added the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

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

Your post or page displays your item in your content …

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

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This is great if you’re managing interactive graph data in WordPress.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert great-looking and interactive bar charts and graphs into WordPress with WP Visualizer.

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