How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

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

You can present data with tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly and easily processed.

Graphs and charts help present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

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

• Your visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online source of data
• Will dynamically resize for mobile browsing

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to add the information is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your image into your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.

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 components are required.

WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in optimized for all 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 your web design. Various options are available for each chart that let you 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your pages or posts.

Visualizer Configuration

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

A page will load in your screen with all of the default kinds of charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just download the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Next, select the 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 then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin will import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type 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 data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have picked, the plugin displays various customization options …

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

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your WordPress posts and pages quickly and easily …

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

After adding a new item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

After you’ve created a new element and added it to the Library, it’s easy to add it to your posts and 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 Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will place a shortcode into your content …

Once you have added the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

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

The chart or graph will show up in your content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile screens …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is very convenient if you’re working with interactive chart information in WordPress.

The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

For tutorials on editing, cloning, 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 charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages.

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