How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

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

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, trends or comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present the data in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly and easily processed.

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

If you want to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add colorful and updatable charts to your pages that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload graph or chart data from your computer or an online data source
• Will dynamically resize for mobile users

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 charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply add your image files to your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add dynamic bars and pie charts to your WordPress pages and posts 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 attractive and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the WP Visualizer plugin the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed appealing charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.

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 extra components are required.

The plugin also provides a variety of built-in optimized for 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 also flexible and customizable, 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install any extra plugins.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

A page will appear on your screen displaying all the types of graphs available.

Select the type of graph or chart 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 containing your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

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

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample file supplied with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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‘ …

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 you have previously 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, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, make sure 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 picked, the plugin displays a number of customization settings …

The plugin gives you complete 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 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 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 are happy with how your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

The chart or graph will be added to the Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this allows you to insert graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages easily …

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

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

Plugin Usage

Once you have created a new graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, it’s easy to add it to a 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

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

The graph will appear in the location where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile browsers …

As you can see, Visualizer lets you add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is a real time-saving benefit of the plugin if you’re adding dynamic chart information in WordPress.

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

For additional 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 eye-catching and interactive pie charts and graphs in WordPress.

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