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’re presenting or explaining complex data.

Using graphs and charts can help to break up long passage of text, and make statistical data and information simpler and easier to understand.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or comparisons easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand your information.

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

If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add colourful and updateable graphs and charts to your WordPress pages and posts that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Will resize dynamically for mobile browsers

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the files and an image into your post or page.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bars and pie charts 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 attractive and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see a little further below), or access and download WordPress Visualizer the WP plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

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

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 components are needed.

Visualizer also provides a variety of charts 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 a flexible and customizable plugin, 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 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 devices without requiring the installation of extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

From your WP dashboard, 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 after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After your 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 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 the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to display in your content.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

A visual gallery displaying all of the built-in kinds of graphs available will come up on your screen.

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

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

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

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

The plugin imports the 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, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

The plugin gives you complete control over 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’re satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in just a moment, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your WordPress pages easily …

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

After an item has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a new graph or chart and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to insert it into your posts and pages.

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 the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

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

Your visual element will show in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for viewing on mobile devices …

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

The developers of this plugin have created a series of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert appealing bar charts and graphs into your WordPress pages.

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