How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

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

Using graphs and charts can help to break up long text passages, and make technical or statistical data a lot simpler to grasp.

You can present data with tables, but if you want people to try and interpret complex information with figures, percentages and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the data.

Graphs and charts help explain complex data so your audience can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages and posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WP Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert colorful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Lets you add chart or graph data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
• Dynamically resizes for mobile device viewers

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display your information is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into images and then simply insert the files and an image into your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bar charts and graphs in WordPress content 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 eye-catching and interactive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed stunning and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps.

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 addons are needed.

Visualizer also provides 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

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 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 visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any additional software.

How To Install The Plugin

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

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

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library section …

When you first install the plugin, the library will contain no charts.

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

You will be presented with all the different kinds of graphs and charts available.

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

Your 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:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample file supplied 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 your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports the data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …

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 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 click ‘Next‘ …

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

The plugin gives you total control of your chart or graph, 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 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 chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After adding a graph or chart to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

Once you have created a new element and added it to the Library, adding it to a page or post is quite simple.

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

This inserts a shortcode into your content …

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

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

The graph or chart will appear in the content …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert 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 is very convenient if you’re working with dynamic chart information in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a series of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin.

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs to WordPress.

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