How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

Learn how to easily create and insert tables into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required …

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress

The ability to easily add tables to your pages can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.

WordPress provides users with a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t do, such as giving you the option 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 users, this is not a practical option.

Fortunately, you can do almost anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and inserting tables into your content is no exception.

In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your site’s pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.

How To Create And Add Tables With WordPress

To create and add tables into your WordPress content without touching code, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.

TablePress

How To Insert Tables  In WordPress

TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.

TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple interface that allows you to easily edit your table data. Tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.

An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can easily insert tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display these using text widgets.

You can also import and export tables 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 WordPress Plugin – Step-By-Step Tutorial

To create and manage tables in WordPress with TablePress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.

Download this plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it from your WordPress Dashboard …

How To Create And Add Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts Easily With No Programming Skills Required

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new menu item in your main menu called TablePress

How To Create And Add Tables  With WordPress

Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the list of submenus …

How To Add Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages

The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …

Creating And Adding Tables In Pages And Posts With WordPress

For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your Dashboard menu.

By default, the menu item displays around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu item close to the top of the admin menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

Inserting Tables  In WordPress

The TablePress menu item will now show closer to the top of the menu …

Creating And Adding Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” section, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. Leave all settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.

With TablePress, you create edit and format tables within the plugin screen. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display or update after publishing or updating your post.

The benefit of doing this is that you can easily modify the data inside your tables without having to touch your posts and pages. TablePress then updates all of your table information inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.

To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table

How To Add Tables Into Your Content Easily In WordPress

Enter 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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can change the name, description and size of any tables you create at anytime…

How To Add Tables  With WordPress

Once your new table is created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …

Creating And Adding Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts

The TablePress shortcode allows you to 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 …

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts

Once you have created a new table, adding content to it 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 …)

Inserting Tables Into Posts And Pages With WordPress

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 …

How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

You can also modify your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can add links or images, hide, show, insert, delete and clone selected rows and columns, add new rows and columns, combine cells, etc …

How To Create And Add Tables To WordPress Content

You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows showing on your page (and also allow visitors to specify the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …

Creating And Inserting Tables  With WordPress

You can see how your table looks anytime, by clicking on the Preview button …

How To Insert Tables Into Your Content Easily Without Touching Code

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 post or page is published …

Adding Tables In Pages And Posts In WordPress

Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your table data …

Creating And Inserting Tables Into Your Content In WordPress

After you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by going to TablePress > All Tables

Creating And Adding Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

A list of all your tables will be displayed in this area. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …

How To Add Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts

How To Use The Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Posts And Pages

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 …

How To Add Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages Easily

The plugin also adds a shortcode menu icon 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 …

How To Insert Tables  With WordPress

TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen

Note: You can also insert a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …

How To Create And Add Tables To WordPress

TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen

Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all the available tables you have created.

Select the table you want to insert into the post or page and click Insert Shortcode

How To Create And Add Tables To WordPress Content

Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …

Adding Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

Publish the post or page to display your table and table contents …

How To Create And Add Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts  Without Touching Code

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. Change the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your post to view the updated content.

Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding more 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 table 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 main menu …

Creating And Adding Tables In Pages And Posts In WordPress

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 …

How To Create And Insert Tables Into Pages And Posts With WordPress

After editing and resaving your file, you can then re-import the table into WordPress.

To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, go to the Dashboard menu and select TablePress > Import a Table

Creating And Inserting Tables Into Your Content With WordPress

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 format.

To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and select whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.

Inserting Tables  In WordPress

For more information about using TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for extra features, get technical support, contact the plugin author, etc., click on the “About Tab” in the plugin admin section, or select TablePress > About TablePress

How To Insert Tables Into Pages And Posts With WordPress

As you can see, TablePress is quite a useful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your site content.

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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now

Originally published as How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages.