How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you are presenting and explaining complex information.

Using charts and graphs is great for making data easier to digest.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and interpret complex data with figures, percentages or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your data.

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

If you need to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using graphs and charts, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add beautiful and updatable graphs and charts to WordPress that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or an online data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile users

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg or .png images and then simply insert the image files into your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily embed dynamic bars and pie graphs into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

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

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (we will show you how to do this a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WP Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing 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 plugins are required.

Visualizer also provides a variety of charts 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

Visualizer is 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 further 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile device browsers without having to install any additional software.

Plugin Installation

From your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

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

Locate the plugin in the search results section and click Install Now …

Click OK to continue …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

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

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

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

A gallery displaying all of the types of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.

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

The 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:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

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

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

Upload CSV File From Computer

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

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

The plugin imports the data and displays 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, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a range of customization settings and options …

Visualizer gives you complete control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

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

• 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’re satisfied with the look of your graph or chart, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

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

Visualizer Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to Visualizer, it’s very easy to insert it into a 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 the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

After updating the page/post, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

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

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for viewing on mobile devices …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes managing dynamic chart data in WordPress very easy.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add attractive and dynamic charts and graphs to WordPress.

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