How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

Learn how to create, manage and embed stunning dynamic and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps …

How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

How To Create Dynamic Graphs And Charts In A WordPress Page

No doubt you’re familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re presenting or explaining data.

Using charts and graphs is a great way to make statistical data and information much simpler to understand.

You can present data using tables, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs allow you to present information in a meaningful and intelligent way that can be quickly processed.

How To Create Charts In Posts And Pages In WordPress

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

If you need to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add beautiful and interactive charts and graphs to 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 source of data
  • Will resize dynamically for mobile screens

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Tip

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

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bars and pie graphs to 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 eye-catching and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Plugin URL

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

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful and mobile-responsive graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 addons are needed.

WordPress Visualizer also comes with 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

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 allow you to 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 devices without requiring the installation of any extra plugins.

How To Install The Visualizer Plugin

Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …

WordPress Plugin Tutorial

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

Install Visualizer - WP Plugin

Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now

Install WP Plugin: Visualizer

Click OK to continue …

Install Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Activate the plugin …

Install Visualizer

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

Install WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library

Install WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

How To Intall Plugins

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

Visualizer - WP Plugin

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

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

Visualizer Configuration

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

An image gallery displaying all of the kinds of charts and graphs available will load on your screen.

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Your selected graph/chart type will open up in a new window.

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

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Important

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply use the sample file that comes with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, 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‘ …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

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

Visualizer

The plugin will import the data and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Upload CSV File From The Web

Visualizer

Important

To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:

After importing the data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

WP Plugin: Visualizer

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

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

Visualizer

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, such as:

  • 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).

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Once you are satisfied with the way your chart or graph is looking, click Create Chart

Visualizer

The graph or chart will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Note that new elements are given a unique ID displayed in a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily insert graphs and charts into your content …

Visualizer - WP Plugin

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Visualizer Usage

After creating a element and adding it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to posts and pages is quite simple.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media

@@@

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

WP Plugin: Visualizer

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

Visualizer

This adds a shortcode into your content …

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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

Publishing A WordPress Post

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

The graph or chart will appear in the content …

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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

Visualizer

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 the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is great if you’re adding interactive graph data in WordPress.

Tutorial

The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the plugin.

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add stunning and interactive pie charts and graphs to WordPress with WordPress Visualizer.

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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com

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Originally published as How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress.