Being able to display tables on 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.
The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, such as letting you create tables without having to learn code.
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 most non-technical WordPress users, this is simply not a realistic option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and inserting tables into your content is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your content without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
Adding Tables In Posts And Pages In WordPress
To create and add tables into your WordPress content without touching code, we’ll use a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
A powerful and time-saving plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages simple and easy is TablePress.
TablePress does not require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple user interface that allows you to easily edit your table data. You can add any type of data, even formulas to tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can easily insert tables into your content using shortcodes and display tables 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 developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress Plugin For WP – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress using TablePress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item in your admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” section affects the plugin’s 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 item displays around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu item towards the top of your menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry now displays near the top of the menu list …
You can also specify other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” tab, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to modify this section, simply leave the default options.
With TablePress, you create edit and format your tables inside the plugin area. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display when publishing or updating your content.
The benefit of doing this is that you can easily update the information inside your tables without having to touch your posts and 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 …
Type in the table 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, then click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can edit the name, description and size of your tables at anytime…
Once the new table is created, it will be added to the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere in your content by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to be displayed …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to it 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 HTML formatting to your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert links, 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 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 a row when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform a range of different table manipulations, such as inserting links or 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 your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your pages (and let users 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 on your screen 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 update your new table data …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
All the tables you have created are listed here. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode
You can embed a table into page content using the TablePress shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under the table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a menu item 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 appear 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 editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text 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 inserted …
The 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. Just tweak the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated information.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding 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 a table, select TablePress > Export a Table in your main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select 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 table file to your hard drive …
After editing and resaving your file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, select 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 import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can 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 TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, or get technical support for the plugin, 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 a very useful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and insert tables into your site content.
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