Being able to provide visitors with tables on your website 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 the default editor won’t do, such as letting you 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 users, this is not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and creating tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your content without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Create And Add Tables Into Your Content With WordPress
If you want to create and add tables into your WordPress content with no coding skills required, the tutorial below will show you how to do this using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WP Plugin
A powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple user interface that lets you easily edit 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 your visitors. You can include the tables into your page content using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
This plugin 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 – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new menu item has been added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” section controls your plugin styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change where the TablePress menu entry appears on your WP admin menu.
By default, the menu entry displays somewhere in the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option near the top of the Dashboard menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now show towards the top area of your menu …
You can also specify other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” area, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to modify these settings, simply leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, you create and edit your tables within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your WordPress posts and pages. Your table will then display after your content is republished.
The benefit of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the information in your tables without having to touch your posts and pages. TablePress then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in the table name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you would like 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 change the name, description and size of any tables you create at anytime…
Once your new table is created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere in your content simply by typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to display …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to the table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click inside the cell and type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert links, etc …)
Once your new table is created, you will see a number of additional options that will allow you to 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 colour, highlight rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a number of operations on your table, such as adding links or images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected columns and rows, adding new rows and columns, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows displayed on your site (and let users 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 on your browser 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 …
Click the Save Changes button when finished to save your new table data …
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 area. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …
How To Use The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Content
You embed tables into your pages and blog posts using the TablePress shortcode.
Get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item below the table title to get the shortcode …
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 your table to appear then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside the “Text” area of the WP editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress 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 embed in the content 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 edit data after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Just tweak 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 the TablePress plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding data to an existing table, just export your current table, then add new items, 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 admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose 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 table file to your hard drive …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then easily reimport 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 (e.g. Excel), an HTML file resembling a webpage, or its own format.
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and select whether to import a table as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about using TablePress, including where to access documentation about extra features, get technical support for the plugin, 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 an extremely useful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your site content.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum