The ability to easily add tables to your content can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor offers many great features, but there are some things that it won’t let you do by default, like being able to create tables without having to learn code.
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 WordPress users, this is not a realistic option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and creating tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your content with no coding skills required.
How To Easily Insert Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts Without Coding Skills
If you want to create and add tables to your WordPress posts or pages without touching code, the step-by-step 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 very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages a very simple and easy process is TablePress.
TablePress does not require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit your table data. You can add any type of data to tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can insert tables into your page content using shortcodes and display these using text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
TablePress was developed 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 manage tables in WordPress posts or pages, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from within your Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” page controls your plugin styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your Dashboard menu.
By default, the menu entry appears somewhere in the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu option closer to the top of the Dashboard menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now shows close to the top area of your menu …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” area, like 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 your tables inside the plugin section. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your posts. The table will then display after publishing your pages or posts.
The advantage of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily update the information inside your tables without having to manually edit your pages and posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information in all locations where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in the 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 edit the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once the new table is created, it will appear in 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 inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to the table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
Once your new table is created, the plugin will display additional options for configuring 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, 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 creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can add links or images, hide, show, insert, delete and duplicate selected columns and rows, add new columns and rows, combine 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, set the number of table rows showing on your page (and let visitors change 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 screen displaying the table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your table is published …
Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your table data …
After you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by choosing TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
Using The Shortcode
You can embed a table into your page content with the TablePress shortcode.
You can 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 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 inside the “Text” area of the WP editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all the available tables you have created.
Select the table you want to add to the post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …
Your table and 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 edit data after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save your 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 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, click on TablePress > Export a Table in the main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) 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 table file, you can then re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, go to your 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, or its own format.
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” section. You can import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, including accessing the plugin documentation for extra features, get technical 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 quite a powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your page content.
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