Being able to display tables on your pages can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
WordPress provides users with a great visual editor, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, such as giving you the option 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 many non-technical users, this is simply not a practical option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done 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 create and insert tables easily into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required.
How To Easily Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages Without Coding Skills
If you want to create and add tables into your WordPress content and don’t have the skills and knowledge to create tables using HTML or CSS, the step-by-step tutorial below will show you how to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple user interface that allows you to easily edit your 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 site visitors. You can easily include the tables into your page content using shortcodes and even display tables inside 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 – Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
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 be added to your Dashboard menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” area affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify where the TablePress menu entry appears on your WP admin menu.
Normally, the menu item displays somewhere near the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu option closer to the top of your Dashboard menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now shows towards the top area of your admin menu …
You can also specify other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” section, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to change this section, simply leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, you create edit and format tables within the plugin screen. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your content. Your tables will then display or update after publishing your pages or posts.
The advantage of doing this is that you can easily change the data inside your tables without having to manually edit your posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you want 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 change the name, description and size of your tables at anytime…
Once the new table has been created, it will be listed in 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 your table to display …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is very 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 …)
After your new table has been created, the plugin also displays a number of additional options that will let you configure 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 a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also edit your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform various operations on your table, such as adding links and images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected rows and columns, adding new rows and columns, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables, such as allowing site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your site (and also allow visitors to specify 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 on your screen displaying the 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 save your table information …
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 section. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …
Using The Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Page Content
You insert a table inside posts and pages with the TablePress shortcode.
Click 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 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 embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also add a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all the available tables you have created.
Select the table you want to insert into the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
Publish your post or page to view your table contents …
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 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 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, click on TablePress > Export a Table in your admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) 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 changing and resaving your file, you can then easily re-import your table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to the sidebar 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 JSON format. You can also import existing tables from the WP-Table Reloaded plugin
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” area. You can also import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, 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 a very powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and insert 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