Being able to provide visitors with tables on your pages can be very useful. Tables help you sort and present 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 it doesn’t do by default, such as giving you the option to easily create tables.
Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical users, this is not a realistic option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and adding tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your posts and pages with no coding skills required.
How To Create And Add Tables To WordPress Content
Follow the tutorial below to learn how to add tables in WordPress 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 or skills coding 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 pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for site users. You can easily include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even 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.
The plugin was developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress Plugin For WP – Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from your own Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” area 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 admin menu.
Normally, the menu entry appears around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu item near the top of your Dashboard menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now display near the top section of your menu list …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” tab, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, then just leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, tables are created and edited within the plugin screen. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display or update when publishing your pages or posts.
The benefit of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the information in your tables without having to manually edit your pages. 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 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 any tables you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will get added to the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily add tables anywhere in your content by simply inserting 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 easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click in the cell and type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
After your new table has been created, displays a number of additional options that will let you configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” section you can specify 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 colour, 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 content after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform a range of different edits on your table, like adding images or links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning selected rows and columns, adding new columns and rows, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables, such as allowing visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your post (and let visitors 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 on your screen allowing you to preview your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your table is published …
Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your table information …
To view a list of all the tables you have created select TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all the tables you have created will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode
You embed tables into any pages and blog posts with the TablePress shortcode.
You can get the shortcode for your tables by clicking 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 HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of your tables.
Select the table you want to insert into the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …
Publish your post or page to display the table and table contents …
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 more data to an existing table, just export your current table, then add new information, 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 your 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 your file, you can then easily re-import your 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, an HTML file, 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 ZIP files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, including accessing documentation about 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 …
As you can see, TablePress is quite a useful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your page content.
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