The ability to easily add tables to your website can be very useful. Tables help you sort and present data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor offers many features, but there are some things that it won’t do by default, like being able to easily create tables.
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 users, this is simply not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and creating tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and insert tables into your content without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Add Tables In Pages And Posts In WordPress
To create and add tables to your WordPress posts or pages with no HTML or CSS knowledge required, we’ll use a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
WP Plugin – TablePress
A very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit table data. You can add any kind of data, even formulas to tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for site users. You can easily insert tables into your pages and blog posts using shortcodes and even display these using text widgets.
You can also import and export tables from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress was written and developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, a new menu item will appear on your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” section affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your Dashboard menu.
Normally, the menu entry appears around the middle of your menu bar. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu option close to the top of the admin menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays close to the top of the admin menu …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” section, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave these options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.
With TablePress, tables are created and formatted within the plugin section. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your posts. The tables will then display after your content is saved.
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 data everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the name, an optional description, and the number of rows and columns you would like for the 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 change the name, description and size of your tables at anytime…
Once your new table is created, it will be added to the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily add tables anywhere in your content simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to be displayed …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)
Once your new table is created, the plugin will display additional options for configuring your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” section you can specify the first row of your table to be the table header or the last row of the table to be the table footer, display alternate background colours on consecutive rows, highlight rows when a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also edit your table after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can insert links or 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, such as allowing your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your post (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 on the Preview button …
A preview window will open displaying the 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 table information …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all the tables you have created will be displayed in this screen. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, delete, export and preview tables …
Using The Shortcode
You can embed a table into pages and posts with a shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under the 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 mouse cursor where you want your table to appear then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also add a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all the available tables you have created.
Select the table you want to embed in the post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
Your table contents 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 edit data after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated information.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding new 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 exported file with the news changes and your table content will be automatically updated throughout your site.
To export an existing table, select TablePress > Export a Table in your admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select the table(s) you want to export (you can 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 table file to your hard drive …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, 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.
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, 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 quite a useful and feature-rich free plugin will help you easily create and embed tables into your page content.
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