The ability to easily add tables to your website can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor offers many features, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, such as giving you the option to create tables without having to learn code.
Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for most non-technical WordPress users, this is simply not a practical option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and adding tables to your content with the click of a mouse is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your content with no coding skills required.
How To Add Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts
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, the tutorial below will show you how to easily do this using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WordPress Plugin
A very powerful and time-saving plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages simple and easy is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple interface that allows you to easily edit your table data. You can add any kind of data to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily include the tables into your post content using shortcodes and display tables using text widgets.
You can also import and export tables from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress was written and developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress WP Plugin – Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress posts and pages, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your own Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see a new menu item added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change where the TablePress menu entry appears on your admin menu.
Normally, the menu entry displays somewhere near the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu item closer to the top of the menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry now shows near the top of the admin menu …
You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” section, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. If you don’t need to change these settings, then just leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, tables are created and edited within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your posts. The tables will then display or update after saving and publishing your post.
The advantage of doing this is that you can easily modify the data in your tables without having to touch your pages and posts. The plugin then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter a table 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 change the name, description and size of any table you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will get added to the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
After your new table has been created, the plugin will display a number of additional options that will 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 and the last row of the table to be the table footer, display alternate background colours on consecutive rows, highlight rows 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 modify your table after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a range of manipulations on your table, like inserting images or links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning selected columns and rows, 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, set the number of table rows showing on your pages (and let visitors change the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …
You can preview your table anytime, by clicking on the Preview button …
A preview window will open on your screen allowing you to preview your table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Remember to 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 the tables you have created will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Page Content
You embed a table into your pages and posts using the TablePress shortcode.
Click 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 mouse cursor where you want the table to be embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside 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 existing tables.
Select the table you want to insert into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted into your content …
The table and 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 change 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 content.
Another great time-saving feature of the TablePress 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 exported file with the news changes and your table content will be automatically updated throughout your site.
To export a table, click on TablePress > Export a Table in your admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you would like 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 editing and resaving your file, you can then easily re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, 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, or its own JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can also import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import a table as a new table or to replace an existing table.
For more information about using TablePress, including accessing documentation about extra features, or get plugin 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 an extremely powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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