How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up long text passages, and making statistical data and information simpler and easier to understand.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, percentages and comparisons quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them understand the data.

Graphs and charts help you 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 WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and embed stunning graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload graph or chart data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for viewing on mobile devices

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add interactive bars and pie graphs to 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 great free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic information.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and embed eye-catching and dynamic charts 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 plugins or add-ons are required.

The plugin also comes with a variety of built-in 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

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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of extra plugins.

How To Install Visualizer

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

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 will want to display in your pages and posts.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

An image gallery displaying all of the types of graphs available will load on your screen.

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

The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample provided with the plugin.

Next, 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 computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import your data 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, see the article below:

• 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 with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays a range of customization settings …

The plugin gives you complete 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 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 are satisfied with the way your chart or graph looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Usage

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

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 Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

After publishing your page, click ‘View post’ to see the results …

Your item will show in the location you specified …

As mentioned earlier, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile devices …

As you can see, WordPress 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 throughout your site. This makes managing 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 the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

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

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