Being able to easily add tables on your content can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to people 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 create tables without having to learn code.
Although you can add tables manually to your content in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for most non-technical WordPress users, this is not a realistic option.
Fortunately, you can do almost anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and adding tables is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Insert Tables Into Posts And Pages In WordPress
Follow the step-by-step tutorial below to learn how to easily create and add tables in WordPress using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
WordPress Plugin – TablePress
TablePress is a great WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress does not require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple interface that lets you easily edit your table data. Your tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
This plugin was 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 using TablePress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from your Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu item will display on your admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” section affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your WP admin menu.
By default, the menu item appears somewhere near the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu option close to the top of the menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now appear close to the top area of the menu list …
You can also play with other settings in the “Plugin Options” screen, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave all settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin area. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your WordPress posts and pages. The tables will then display or update when your content is published or updated.
The benefit of doing this is that you can easily update the data in your tables without having to touch your pages. The plugin 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 …
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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can edit the name, description and size of any table you create at anytime…
Once your new table is created, it will get added to the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to display …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to the table is really easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)
Once your new table is created, additional options appear that 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 rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, print the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also edit your table information after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform various manipulations on your table, like inserting images and 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 your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows showing on your site (and also allow users to 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 in your screen allowing you to preview your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your new table data …
Once you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by going to TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all the tables you have created will be displayed in this screen. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Pages And Posts
You embed a table into any pages and blog posts with 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 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 be inserted then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also add a table when working inside the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of your available tables.
Select the table you want to insert into the post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
Your table contents will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can edit information 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 page to view the updated content.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding new 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 exported file with the news changes and your table content will be automatically updated throughout your site.
To export an existing table, select TablePress > Export a Table in the WP 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 file to your hard drive …
After editing and resaving your file, you can then re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to the Dashboard menu and choose TablePress > Import a Table …
TablePress can import tables from existing data, such as CSV file data, from a spreadsheet application, an HTML file resembling a webpage, or its own JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
For more information about the plugin, including where to access documentation about extra features, get plugin support, 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 powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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