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 …

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How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

Add Beautiful Charts To Pages In WordPress

You’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts is a great way to break up content that has too much text, and make statistical data simpler to understand.

You can present information using tables, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, percentages or relationships quickly, then charts and graphs let you present your data in an intelligent and meaningful manner that can be quickly processed.

Creating Charts And Graphs In Pages In WordPress

Graphs and charts help you present complex data so people can more easily understand it!

If you want to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create eye-catching and updatable charts and graphs to your WordPress posts that:

  • Your web visitors can engage with
  • Lets you upload chart or graph data from your hard drive or an online data source
  • Is dynamically responsive for mobile browsing

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Tip

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 option is to create the charts or graphs using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add the images to your pages or posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to insert dynamic bars and pie graphs into WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a free plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and interactive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic content.

Visualizer – WordPress Plugin

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (we show you how to do this a little further below), or access and download the Visualizer plugin here:

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 colorful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in 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 are required.

The plugin also comes with a variety of charts that are optimized to address 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. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to fully 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 web visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of extra software.

How To Install Visualizer

From your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

WordPress Step-By-Step Tutorial

In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and hit enter …

Install WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Locate the item in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Install Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Click OK to continue …

Install WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

Install Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

Install Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library

Install Visualizer

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

How To Intall Plugin

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

Visualizer - WP Plugin

After installing the plugin, the library section will be empty.

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

A visual gallery displaying all the different kinds of charts available will load on your screen.

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

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

The next step is to upload a CSV file with your data …

Visualizer

Important Info

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

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

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as explained above …

Visualizer

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply use the sample spreadsheet 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 and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Visualizer

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

Visualizer

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

Visualizer - WP Plugin

Upload CSV File From The Web

Visualizer

Important

For a tutorial that shows you 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 data file containing the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Visualizer

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display various customization settings …

WordPress Plugin: Visualizer

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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 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).

Visualizer

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

Visualizer

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

WP Plugin: Visualizer

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Visualizer Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s very easy to add it to pages or posts.

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

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

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Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Visualizer

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

Visualizer - WordPress Plugin

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

Visualizer

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

Publishing A WordPress Post

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

Visualizer Plugin For WordPress

Your post or page will display your graph or chart in your content …

Visualizer - WP Plugin

As mentioned earlier, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile browsing …

Visualizer

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can update your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic graph data in WordPress very efficient.

Tutorial

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

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add eye-catching and dynamic bar charts and graphs to WordPress with WP Visualizer plugin.

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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)

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