The ability to easily add tables to your content can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors in a format that can make 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, like being able to easily create tables.
Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you have knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for most non-technical WordPress users, this is not a practical option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and creating tables is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your posts and pages with no coding skills required.
How To Insert Tables Into Your Content Easily With No Coding Skills Required
If you want to create and add tables to your WordPress posts or pages and don’t have the skills to create tables using HTML or CSS, the tutorial below will show you how to easily add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
WP Plugin – TablePress
A powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It lets you easily edit your table data. You can add any kind of data, even formulas to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for visitors. You can include the tables into your pages and blog posts using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
You can also import and export tables from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
TablePress was written and developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress – Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from within your WordPress Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” screen 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 admin menu.
By default, the menu item appears somewhere in the middle of your menu bar. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option near the top of your Dashboard menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays towards the top of the menu …
You can also play with other settings in the “Plugin Options” screen, such as table formatting styles, default language, and so on. Leave the settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin section. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your posts. The table will then display after publishing your content.
The advantage of doing this is that you can easily modify the data in your tables without having to open any of your pages. The plugin then updates all of your table data in all instances where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the 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 table you create at anytime…
Once your new table is created, it will appear in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily add tables anywhere in your content 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 it is really easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click inside the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to 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 specify 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 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 content after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform a range of table operations, such as inserting links and images, 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 that will allow your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your content (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 in your screen displaying your table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to save your table information …
Once you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by selecting TablePress > All Tables …
Your tables are displayed in a list. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode
You embed a table into pages and posts with 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 your table to be inserted then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working in the “Text” area of the WordPress editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of all the available tables you have created.
Select the table you want to add to your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
Your table 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 the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Edit the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your content to view the updated information.
Another great time-saving feature of the TablePress 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 items, 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, select TablePress > Export a Table in your main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select the table(s) you would like 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 table file to your hard drive …
After editing and resaving your file, you can then easily reimport your table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, go to the admin menu and choose 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 format. You can also import existing tables from the WP-Table Reloaded plugin
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can also import multiple tables from ZIP files and choose whether to import a table as a new table or to replace an existing table.
For more information about using the plugin, including accessing documentation about additional 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 quite a useful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your site content.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum