How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are trying to present or explain complex information.

Using graphs and charts is useful for making data a whole lot easier to understand.

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

Charts and graphs help present complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

If you want to learn how to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching and interactive charts to your WP pages and posts that:

• Your site visitors can interact with
• Lets you add data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Resizes dynamically for mobile screens

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to display this data is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your image to your post or page.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create dynamic bar charts and graphs in your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (we explain how to do this a little further down the page), or download WordPress Visualizer here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed appealing and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with 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 additional components are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also contains 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

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. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.

How To Install The Plugin

Inside your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library screen …

After installing the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the plugin library.

How To Configure The Plugin

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

A page will appear on your browser with all the different kinds of graphs and charts available.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, just study the sample CSV file that comes with the plugin.

Once you have done this, 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Locate and select your data file and 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

To learn 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, check that all of your 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 various customization settings …

Visualizer gives you total control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 happy with the look of your graph or chart, click Create Chart …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your content quickly and easily …

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

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

Visualizer Plugin Usage

Once you have created a element and added it to the Library, it’s really simple to add it to a post or page.

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 your 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 inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

Once your page/post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see it …

The chart will display in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile screens …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes adding dynamic chart data in WordPress very efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily create appealing and interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress.

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