The ability to easily add tables to your content can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress offers a great visual editor, but there are some things that it won’t let you do by default, such as letting you create tables without having to learn code.
Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you have knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for most non-technical users, this is not a practical option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins give users almost unlimited expansion capabilities, and inserting tables into your content is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your posts and pages with no coding skills required.
Creating And Adding Tables Into Your Content In WordPress
Follow the tutorial below to learn how to easily create and add tables into your WordPress content using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
A powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit your table data. Your tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can include the tables into your posts and pages 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.
The plugin was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress Plugin For WordPress – Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from your WordPress Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new menu item added to your main menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” area controls your plugin 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.
By default, the menu item appears somewhere in the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu item near the top of the Dashboard menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now show near the top section of the admin menu …
You can also play with other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” tab, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. Leave all options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.
With TablePress, tables are created and edited inside the plugin screen. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your posts. Your tables will then display after saving your page.
The great thing about doing this is that you can easily modify the data inside your tables without having to touch your pages and posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information in all instances where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the table name, a description (optional), 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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can change the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once the new table has been created, it will get 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 by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to display …
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, displays a number of additional options that will let you configure 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, make the background of consecutive rows alternate in color, highlight a row when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a number of table edits, such as inserting images and links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected rows and columns, adding new columns and rows, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, set 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 on the Preview button …
A preview window will open allowing you to preview your table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your table is published …
Click the Save Changes button when finished to save your new 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 section. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Page Content
You embed a table into posts and pages using a shortcode.
You can get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item below 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 the table to appear then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of your existing tables.
Select the table you want to add to your content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted …
Your table will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can change things after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated information.
Another great time-saving feature of the TablePress plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding 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 a table, select TablePress > Export a Table in the WP admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select the table(s) 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 file to your hard drive …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then easily re-import 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 resembling a webpage, 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” section. You can also import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, including accessing the plugin documentation for additional features, get plugin support, 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 an extremely powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your site content.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)