How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting and explaining data.

Using graphs and charts can help to break up technical or boring text, and make statistical data and information more easily digestible.

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

Charts and graphs help present complex information so people can more easily interpret it!

If you need to learn how 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 and add great-looking and updatable graphs and charts to your pages and posts that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or a web-based source of data
• Will resize dynamically for mobile devices

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add interactive bars and pie graphs to your WordPress content 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 that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (we will explain how to do this a little further down the page), or access and download Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just 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 additional plugins or add-ons are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also comes with 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 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. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install additional software.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

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

In the Add Plugins page type search for “visualizer” and click enter …

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

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after installation is successful …

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 from the main menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options 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 publish to your content.

Visualizer Configuration

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

You will be presented with all of the default types of graphs and charts available.

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

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

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

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

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

Next, 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‘ …

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

The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type 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, see the article below:

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

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display a number of customization settings …

The plugin gives you total control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 happy with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see very soon, this lets you add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages easily …

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 it, clone it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a page or post is really simple.

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 the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

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

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

Once your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

You will see the visual element in your content …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes adding interactive chart data in WordPress really efficient.

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

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 easily add attractive and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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