The ability to easily add tables to your website can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress offers a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t do, such as giving you the option to create tables without having to learn code.
Although you can add tables manually to your content in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical WordPress users, this is simply not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do almost anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and creating tables is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your pages and blog posts with no coding skills required.
Adding Tables In Pages And Posts With WordPress
If you want to create and add tables to your WordPress posts or pages and don’t have the skills to create these using HTML or CSS, the tutorial below will show you how to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WordPress Plugin
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple interface that lets you easily edit table data. Your tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can include the tables into your post content using shortcodes and display these inside text widgets.
A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
This plugin was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress with TablePress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own WordPress Dashboard …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item on your admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” screen affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your WP admin menu.
Normally, the menu item displays somewhere around the middle of your menu bar. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu option closer to the top of the menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now show close to the top of your menu list …
You can also play with other settings in the “Plugin Options” screen, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. Leave all settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.
With TablePress, tables are created and edited within the plugin section. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display when saving and publishing your content.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the data inside your tables without having to open any of your pages and posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the table name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you want for your new table into the “Add New Table” form in the Add New tab, then click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can edit the name, description and size of your tables at anytime…
Once the new table has been created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to be displayed …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to the table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click in the cell and either type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
Once your new table is created, additional options appear that let you configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” area you can specify the first row of your table to be the table header and the last row of the table to be the table footer, display alternate background colors on consecutive rows, highlight rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also edit your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can add links and images, hide, show, insert, delete and clone selected rows and columns, add new rows and columns, combine cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your site (and also allow visitors to change the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …
You can see how your table looks anytime, by clicking the Preview button …
A preview window will open displaying your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your table is published …
Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to save your new table data …
Once you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by selecting TablePress > All Tables …
Your tables are displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
Using The Shortcode
You can embed a table into any posts and pages using the TablePress shortcode.
Get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item below your table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a menu item to your WordPress content editor. This allows you to easily insert tables into your posts and pages while working on your content.
Place your cursor where you want your table to show then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all your tables.
Select the table you want to insert into the post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
The table will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about TablePress is that you can change information after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Edit the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your content to view the updated information.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding more data to an existing table, you can simply export your current table, then add new information, make changes, etc. You can then re-import your table file with the news changes and your table content will be automatically updated throughout your site.
To export a table, select TablePress > Export a Table in your main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you want to export (tip: select multiple tables by holding down the “Ctrl” key), then select the Export Format you want(e.g. CSV) and any other export options you’d like to make and click on the Export Table button to download the file to your hard drive …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, select TablePress > Import a Table …
TablePress can import tables from existing data, such as CSV file data, from a spreadsheet application (e.g. Excel), an HTML file, or its own JSON format. You can also import existing tables from the WP-Table Reloaded plugin
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
For more information about using TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, or get technical support for the plugin, contact the plugin author, etc., click on the “About Tab” in the plugin admin section, or select TablePress > About TablePress …
As you can see, TablePress is a very powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum