How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain data.

Using graphs and charts can help to make statistical data more easily digestible.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages or comparisons more easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present information in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly and easily processed.

Charts and graphs help you present complex information so people can more easily understand it!

If you want to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create colorful and updateable graphs and charts to your pages that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile screens

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create dynamic bars and graphs in 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 colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard (we explain how to do this 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 lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and dynamic graphs 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 addons are required.

Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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

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 site’s design. Several options are available for each chart that let you 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

Inside your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

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

Locate the entry in the search results area and click Install Now …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your posts and pages.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

You will see all of the default kinds of charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample file supplied with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a 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 your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

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

Visualizer gives you total control of your chart or graph, 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 are satisfied with how your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your posts and pages quickly …

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

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

Plugin Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding 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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will place a shortcode into your content …

Once you have finished adding the element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

After publishing your post, click ‘View post’ to see it …

You will see your element in where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile browsing …

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 working with interactive graph information in WordPress very efficient.

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

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 easily create stunning and dynamic charts and graphs in WordPress with WP Visualizer.

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