Being able to easily add tables on your pages can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to visitors in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress provides users with 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 add tables manually to your content in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical WordPress users, this is not a practical option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and adding tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required.
Creating And Adding Tables In Posts And Pages In WordPress
To add tables to your WordPress posts or pages without touching code, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WP Plugin
TablePress is a powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple interface that allows you to easily edit table data. Your tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can insert tables into your posts and pages 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.
This plugin was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress WordPress Plugin – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your own Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu item will appear on your admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” area affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change where the TablePress menu entry appears on your admin menu.
Normally, the menu item displays somewhere around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu item closer to the top of your menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now display towards the top section of the menu list …
You can also play with other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” area, such as formatting styles for your tables, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to change this section, simply leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, you create and edit your tables within the plugin area. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your content. Your tables will then display or update after saving and publishing your post.
The benefit of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily update the information in your tables without having to manually edit your posts and pages. The plugin then updates all of your table information 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, an optional description, 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, then click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can change the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will get 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 inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to be displayed …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to the table is really easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click in the cell and either type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
After your new table has been created, additional options appear that let you 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, display alternate background colors on consecutive rows, highlight rows when a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, print 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” subsection. You can add images or links, hide, show, insert, delete and clone selected columns and rows, add new rows and columns, combine cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your posts (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 displaying the 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 update your table data …
After 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
You insert a table into any page content 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 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 the table to show 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 WordPress editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all your available tables.
Select the table you want to embed in your content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted into your content …
Your 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 change information 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 content.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding new 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, select TablePress > Export a Table in your main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select the table(s) you would like 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 re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to your Dashboard menu and 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. 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” section. You can also import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.
For more information about using TablePress, including accessing documentation about extra features, get plugin support, contact the plugin author, 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 and feature-rich free plugin will help you easily create and add tables into your page content.
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