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 certainly applies when you are presenting and explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts is great for making statistical data and information much simpler to grasp.

You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex data with numbers, percentages or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present the data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly understood.

Charts and graphs help explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this tutorial will show you how to create and add attractive and interactive charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you add data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Resizes dynamically 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), a simple method you can use to add the data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into .jpg and .png files and then simply insert your images into your content.

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 great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create stunning and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see further down the page), or access and download Visualizer the WordPress plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert colorful and interactive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.

WordPress 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 extra add-ons are required.

The plugin also contains a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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 allow you to 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 browsers without having to install extra plugins.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …

After installing 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 display in your pages and posts.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …

You will see all the kinds of graphs and charts available.

Select the chart or graph type 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:

• Your first row contains the column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply refer to the sample file that comes with the plugin.

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

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type selected …

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 your data, check that all of your 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 selected, the plugin displays a range of customization settings and options …

Visualizer gives you full 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 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’re happy with how your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …

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

Note that each element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you add graphs and charts to your WordPress content quickly and easily …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After you have created a graph or chart and added it to Visualizer, it’s easy to insert it into 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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the element to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

The chart will show up in the content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs for mobile browsing …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic chart information in WordPress.

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

For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert eye-catching bar charts and graphs into WordPress.

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