How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Charts and graphs are a great way to make data more easily digestible.

You can present data using tables, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages or relationships easily, then charts and graphs are perfect for helping them interpret your information.

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

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that allows you to create, manage and insert interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages that:

• Your visitors can interact with
• Lets you add chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based data source
• Resizes dynamically for mobile devices

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present the information is to create the charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert the images into your posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bar charts and pie graphs in WordPress 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 appealing and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin inside your WordPress dashboard (see a little further down the page), or 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 lets you create, manage and insert interactive charts and graphs 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 plugins are required.

WordPress Visualizer also contains 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

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 web design. 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 site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

Inside your WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

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

Locate Visualizer 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 page …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

When you first install the plugin, the library section will be empty.

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

How To Configure Visualizer

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

You will be presented with all of the default kinds of charts available.

Select the type of graph or chart 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 that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• The first row includes the 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 data CSV, simply use the sample CSV file that comes 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 the CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

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

The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that shows you 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, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays various customization options and settings …

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

For example, the pie chart offers many 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 the way your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

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

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

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

After a graph or chart has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, duplicate it, or trash it …

Plugin Usage

After creating a graph or chart and adding it to the Library, it’s easy to insert it into your content.

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‘ …

Select the element to be added to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode into your content …

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

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

You will see your graph or chart in the content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive visual elements for mobile browsing …

As you can see, the Visualizer plugin lets you add 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 adding dynamic chart information in WordPress really efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs to your WordPress posts with WP Visualizer plugin.

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