Being able to provide visitors with tables on your pages can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
WordPress provides users with a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that it won’t let you do by default, such as giving you the option to 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 many non-technical WordPress users, this is not a realistic 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 step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required.
Creating And Inserting Tables Into Posts And Pages With WordPress
To create and add tables into your WordPress content with no HTML or CSS knowledge required, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.
WordPress Plugin – TablePress
A powerful and time-saving plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress a very simple and easy process is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple user interface that lets you easily edit table data. You can add any type of data, even formulas to tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for site users. You can easily insert tables into your pages and blog posts using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
This plugin was developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress Plugin For WP – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to 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 WP Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new menu item added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” page controls your plugin styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can specify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your Dashboard menu.
Normally, the menu entry appears somewhere near the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu item close to the top of the menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now show close to the top section of the menu list …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” tab, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, just leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, tables are created and formatted inside the plugin screen. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your WordPress posts and pages. The tables will then display when saving and publishing your content.
The great thing about doing this is that you can easily update the information in your tables without having to manually edit your posts. TablePress then updates all of your table data everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the table name, an optional description, 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 any table you create at anytime…
Once the new table has been created, it will appear in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily insert tables anywhere in your content simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to your table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
After your new table has been created, you will see a number of additional options that will let you configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” section you can select 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, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table information after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can add images and links, 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 site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows showing on your posts (and let users 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 like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your new table data …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
All the tables you have created are displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
Using The Shortcode
You embed tables into your posts and pages with the TablePress shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under the table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a shortcode menu icon to your WordPress 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 add a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all existing tables.
Select the table you want to embed in the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
Publish the post or page to view the table contents …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about TablePress is that you can edit information after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Just tweak the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated content.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding data to an existing table, you can simply export your current table, then add new items, 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, click on TablePress > Export a Table in your admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you would like 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 reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to the menu and select TablePress > Import a Table …
TablePress can import tables from existing data, such as CSV file data, from a spreadsheet application, an HTML file resembling a webpage, or its own format. You can also import existing tables from the WP-Table Reloaded plugin
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” section. You can import multiple tables from ZIP files and select whether to import a table as a new table or to replace an existing table.
For more information about using the plugin, including where to access the plugin documentation for extra 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 an extremely powerful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and add tables into your page content.
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