How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting and explaining complex information.

Using charts and graphs is great for making data easier to digest.

You can present information using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with numbers, trends and comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them visualize your information.

Graphs and charts help you present complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!

If you need to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create colorful and updatable graphs and charts to your WP posts and pages that:

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

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply add the image files to your posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bar charts 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 great free WordPress plugin 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 updateable content.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we show you how to do this further down the page), or access and download Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

The WP Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and dynamic graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.

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 plugins are needed.

The plugin 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

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 web design. Various options are available for each chart that let you fully 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 any additional plugins.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …

After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.

Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to publish to your pages or posts.

Visualizer Configuration

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

A gallery displaying all the different kinds of charts and graphs 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 lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply refer to the sample spreadsheet supplied 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 your CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import the data and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you 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 your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin will display various customization options …

The plugin gives you total control over your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:

• 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 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 way your chart or graph is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you embed graphs and charts into your WordPress content very easily …

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, it’s really simple to add it to a page or post.

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

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

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

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

You will see the item in the location you specified …

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

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 website. This makes adding dynamic chart information in WordPress very easy.

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

For additional 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 beautiful charts and graphs into WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

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