The ability to easily add tables to your website can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors 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 do by default, like being able to easily create tables.
Although you can add tables manually to your content 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 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 easily create and insert tables into your posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Add Tables Into WordPress Easily Without Touching Code
To add tables into your WordPress content with no HTML or CSS knowledge required, we’ll use a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
TablePress is a great plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress a very simple and easy process.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit your table data. Tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can include the tables into your content using shortcodes and display these using text widgets.
A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
TablePress was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress Plugin For WordPress – 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 Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu item will appear on your main menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” section 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 WP admin menu.
Normally, the menu item displays 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 your menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry now displays close to the top of your admin menu …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” section, such as table formatting styles, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to change these settings, simply leave the default options.
With TablePress, tables are created and formatted within the plugin screen. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your pages. The table will then display when republishing or saving your pages or posts.
The advantage of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily modify the information inside your tables without having to open any of your pages and posts. The plugin 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 …
Type in a 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, then 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 your new table has been created, it will be listed in the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to your table is really easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to 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” 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 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” section. 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, such as allowing site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your page (and also allow users 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 browser 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 update your new table data …
To view a list of all the tables you have created click on TablePress > All Tables …
Your tables are listed here. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Page Content
You embed tables inside any page content with a shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under your table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a menu item 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 Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also add a table when working in the “Text” area of the WP editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all your available tables.
Select the table you want to embed into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted into your content …
Publish your post or page to display the table …
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. Edit the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your post to view the updated information.
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 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, click on TablePress > Export a Table in your WP admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) to export (tip: 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 your file, you can then re-import your table into WordPress.
To import a table, select TablePress > Import a Table …
TablePress can import tables from existing data, such as CSV file data, from a spreadsheet application, an HTML file, 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 source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from ZIP files and select whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, including accessing documentation about additional features, 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 useful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your page content.
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