How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Using graphs and charts can help to break up long chunks of technical information, and make data more easily digestible.

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

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

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use the WordPress Visualizer plugin – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed beautiful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages 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
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile device users

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present the information is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your image to your site content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily create interactive bars and graphs in WordPress pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

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

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer URL

You can install the plugin inside your WP dashboard (explained a little further below), or download Visualizer from the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Plugin Description

WP Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful plugin for WordPress that lets you create, manage and insert eye-catching and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just 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 extra add-ons are required.

WordPress Visualizer also contains a variety of built-in 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 allow you to further 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 blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of additional software.

Plugin Installation

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

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

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

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

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

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

When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.

Your next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your posts and pages.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

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

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

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

The 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, ensure that:

• The first row contains the column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, 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, just study the sample CSV 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 your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

Use the browser to 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 you have selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that explains 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 the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

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

Visualizer gives you complete control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various 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 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 how your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …

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

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

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

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Usage

Once you’ve created a new graph or chart and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a page or post is very 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 graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

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

After the post/page has been updated, click ‘View post’ to see the end result …

Your page or post displays your chart in the location you specified …

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

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your site. This makes managing dynamic chart information in WordPress really efficient.

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

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

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to insert appealing bar charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages.

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