How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Graphs and charts are a great way to make data more easily digestible.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages and relationships easily, then charts and graphs let you present your data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily understood.

Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

Need to add charts or graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your hard drive or a web-based data source
• Is fully responsive for mobile browsers

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your images into your content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create dynamic bar charts 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 WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create great-looking and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained further down the page), or download Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

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

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 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. A number of options are available for each chart that let you 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer 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 Visualizer in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

A visual gallery displaying all of the different kinds of 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 …

The graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

Once you have created your CSV file, 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 from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

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

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, 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 with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin will display various customization options …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you total control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:

• 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 satisfied with how your graph or chart is looking, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that each visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you insert charts and graphs into your WordPress posts 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, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

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

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‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …

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

Once your post has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

Your post or page will display your graph or chart in the content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile device viewers …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic chart information in WordPress very efficient.

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

For 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 insert eye-catching and dynamic bar charts and graphs into your WordPress pages.

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