The ability to easily add tables to 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.
WordPress offers a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that it doesn’t do by default, such as letting you 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 most non-technical WordPress users, this is simply not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do almost anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and inserting tables into your content 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.
Creating And Inserting Tables Into Posts And Pages In WordPress
If you want to create and add tables into your WordPress content without touching code, then the step-by-step tutorial below will show you how to easily do this using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
WP Plugin – TablePress
A powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress a very simple and easy process is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple user interface that allows you to easily edit table data. You can add any kind of data, even formulas to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for site users. You can insert tables into your pages and blog posts using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress was 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 your Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will get added to your main menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
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 WP admin menu.
By default, the menu entry displays around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option closer to the top of your menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now shows at the top of the admin menu …
You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” area, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. Leave all settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, you create edit and format your tables inside the plugin section. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your pages and posts. The table will then display when saving and publishing your content.
The benefit of doing this is that you can easily update the data inside your tables without having to open any of your posts and pages. TablePress then updates all of your table data inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in the table name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you want for your 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 tables you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will be added to the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to the table is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
Once your new table is created, you will see additional options for configuring your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” area 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, make the background of consecutive rows alternate in color, highlight a row 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” area. You can perform a number of table manipulations, such as inserting links or images, 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 that will allow your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your site (and also allow users to specify the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …
You can preview your table anytime, by clicking the Preview button …
A preview window will open in your browser displaying your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your table is published …
Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to save your new table information …
To view a list of all the tables you have created select TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this screen. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Pages And Posts
You can embed tables inside any posts and pages 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 content editor. This allows you to easily insert tables into your posts and pages while working on your content.
Place your 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 in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of your existing tables.
Select the table you want to embed in your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
The 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 things after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Change 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 more data to an existing table, you can simply 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 an existing table, click on TablePress > Export a Table in the admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select the table(s) you want 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 re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, 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 JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can also import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and choose whether to import a table as a new table or to replace an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, including where to access documentation about extra features, or 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 free plugin will help you easily create and add tables into your site content.
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