Being able to display tables on your website can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, such as letting you 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 most non-technical users, this is simply not a realistic option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and adding tables is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Add Tables In WordPress Content
If you want to create and add tables into your WordPress content 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 easily add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WordPress Plugin
A very powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It 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 visitors. You can easily include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.
Tables can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
The plugin was created 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 manage tables in WordPress using TablePress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from within your own WordPress Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu item will appear on your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” screen 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 item displays somewhere near the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu option 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 now displays closer to the top area of the menu …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” tab, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. Leave all default options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin area. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your WordPress posts and pages. The tables will then display or update when publishing or updating your page.
The great thing about doing this is that you can easily modify the data in your tables without having to open any of 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 add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter a 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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can edit the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once the new table is created, it will display 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 by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)
After your new table has been created, additional options appear that let you configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” area you can select the first row of your table to be the table header and the last row of the table to be the table footer, make the background of consecutive rows alternate in colour, highlight a row when a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, print the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a range of table operations, like inserting links or images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected rows and columns, adding new rows and columns, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables, such as allowing site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your posts (and also allow visitors to specify 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 in your screen allowing you to preview your table. Certain features like 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 data …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode
You insert tables into any page content with the TablePress shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item below 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 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 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 content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …
The table contents 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 the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Edit the content in the plugin area, then save the 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, just export your current table, then add new data, 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 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 file to your hard drive …
After editing and resaving the table file, you can then easily reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, go to your admin menu and choose 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.
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also import multiple tables from ZIP files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, including where to access documentation about extra features, get plugin support, 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 a very powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your page content.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum