The ability to easily add tables to your content can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to visitors in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t do, like being able to easily create tables.
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 users, this is simply not a realistic option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and adding tables to your content is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your site’s pages with no coding skills required.
How To Add Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts
If you want to add tables to your WordPress posts or pages and don’t have the skills to create these using HTML or CSS, then the step-by-step tutorial below will show you how to do this using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple interface that lets you easily edit table data. Tables can contain any kind 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 easily insert tables into your page content using shortcodes and display these inside 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 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 add tables to WordPress posts and pages, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own Dashboard …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item in your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” page 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 Dashboard menu.
Normally, the menu item appears somewhere around the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu option close to the top of the Dashboard menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now appear closer to the top section of your menu list …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” area, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave the settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin screen. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display when your post or page is published or updated.
The benefit of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily modify the information in your tables without having to manually edit your posts. The plugin then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in a table name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you would like 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 tables you create at anytime…
Once the new table has been created, it will be added to the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere in your content simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click inside the cell and either 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” area 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 rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, print the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table information after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can add links and images, hide, show, insert, delete and duplicate selected rows and columns, add new columns and rows, combine cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows displayed on your pages (and also allow users 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 on your screen allowing you to preview the table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your table information …
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 the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
How To Use The TablePress Shortcode
You insert tables into any pages and posts using the TablePress shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under your 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 mouse cursor where you want the table to appear then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In 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 opens a window containing a list of your available tables.
Select the table you want to embed in your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
The 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 the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Tweak 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 data, 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 the WP 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 making changes and resaving the table file, you can then easily 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 resembling a webpage, or its own JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and select whether to import a table as a new table or write over an existing table.
To learn more about using TablePress, including accessing documentation about additional features, get technical support for the plugin, contact the plugin developer, 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 insert tables into your site content.
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