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 presenting and explaining complex information.

Using charts and graphs is useful for making technical or statistical data more easily digestible.

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

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

If you need to present dynamic visual content on your WordPress site like graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you exactly how to create great-looking and updatable charts and graphs to your pages and posts that:

• Your visitors can engage with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is fully responsive for mobile viewers

If you are displaying visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg and .png images and then simply add your image files to your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

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

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

Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (see further below), or download the WP Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Plugin Description

The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert stunning and interactive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 add-ons are required.

WordPress Visualizer also provides 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

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. Various 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of additional plugins.

Plugin Installation

From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

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 choosing Media > Visualizer Library in your 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.

The 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 library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …

A page will appear on your browser displaying all the types of graphs available.

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

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

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

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

Once you have completed this step, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload a CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin will import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve chosen, the plugin displays a range of customization options …

Visualizer gives you total control over 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 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 how your graph or chart looks, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add graphs and charts to your posts and pages quickly and easily …

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

After adding a new chart or graph to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, it’s simple to insert it into a post or page.

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 your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

After you have finished adding your element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

After updating your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see it …

You will see the graph in where you’ve inserted the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive graphs and charts for mobile users …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin 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 refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the plugin.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add attractive and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.

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