Being able to display tables on your pages can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to visitors in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
WordPress provides users with a feature-rich 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 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 not a practical option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins give users almost unlimited expansion capabilities, and adding tables is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your pages and blog posts without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Add Tables In Pages And Posts In WordPress
If you want to add tables into your WordPress content and don’t have the skills and knowledge to create tables using HTML or CSS, then the 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 powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit table data. You can add any kind of data, even formulas to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for site users. You can easily insert tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display these using text widgets.
A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
The 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 – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress with TablePress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from your Dashboard …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item added to your WordPress 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 where the TablePress menu entry appears on your Dashboard menu.
By default, the menu item appears around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu option near the top of your admin menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now show close to the top of your menu list …
You can also play with other settings in the “Plugin Options” screen, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, then just leave the default options.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables inside the plugin section. Tables are then added via a shortcode into your posts. The tables will then display or update when your content is republished.
The advantage of doing this is that you can easily update the information in your tables without having to open any of your pages and posts. The plugin then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in the table name, a description (optional), 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 edit the name, description and size of your table 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 lets you easily add tables anywhere in your content by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to display …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside 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 links, 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 specify 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 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 edit your table information after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a range of different table edits, such as inserting links or images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning 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 visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your page (and let visitors change the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …
You can see how your table looks anytime, by clicking the Preview button …
A preview window will open allowing you to preview your table. Certain features such as the 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 new table information …
To view a list of all your tables 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, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The TablePress Shortcode
You embed tables into posts and pages with a shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item below your 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 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 WordPress editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all tables.
Select the table you want to insert into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
Publish your post or page to view your table and table contents …
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. Tweak the content in the plugin area, then save the 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 exported 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 the WP admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you would like 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 file to your hard drive …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, 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. 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 import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and select whether to import a table as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, including accessing the plugin documentation for 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 a very useful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and embed tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now