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 are trying to present or explain complex data.

Graphs and charts can help to make data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts let you present information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be quickly processed.

Graphs and charts help explain complex information so your audience can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile users

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply add the image files to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bars and pie charts in your WordPress content with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create appealing and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert stunning and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of charts optimized for all 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 the look and feel of your website. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without requiring the installation of any extra software.

How To Install Visualizer

From your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library options screen …

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.

How To Configure Visualizer

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

A visual gallery displaying all of the kinds of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.

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

Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• The first row contains the column headings.
• Your second row includes 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 data CSV, simply use the sample spreadsheet that comes 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn 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 new data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …

The WordPress Visualizer 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 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 the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

Your new chart or graph will be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …

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

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

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

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‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

After the post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Your post or page will display your item in where you’ve added the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert 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 makes working with interactive graph data in WordPress very efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add appealing and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts with WordPress Visualizer.

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