Being able to easily add tables on your website 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 offers a great visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t do, 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 many non-technical users, this is not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and inserting tables into your content with the click of a mouse is no exception.
In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your site’s pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
Adding Tables In WordPress Content
To create and add tables to your WordPress posts or pages with no HTML or CSS knowledge required, we’ll use a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WordPress Plugin
A very powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.
TablePress requires no 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 to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for visitors. You can insert tables into your post 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 formats.
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 WP Plugin – Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress using TablePress, 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 installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new menu item in your Dashboard menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select 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 specify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your admin menu.
By default, the menu item appears around the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu item close to the top of your admin menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays at the top section of your menu list …
You can also play with other settings in the “Plugin Options” tab, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave the default options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your WordPress posts and pages. Your table will then display when saving your page.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin 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 in all locations where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter 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, 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 is created, it will be listed in the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to display …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to the table is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just 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 hyperlinks, etc …)
Once your new table is 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 rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can insert images and 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, change the number of table rows showing on your page (and also allow visitors to 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 in your web browser 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 when finished 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 your tables will be displayed in this area. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Pages And Posts
You insert a table into any posts and pages using the TablePress shortcode.
You can get the shortcode for your tables by clicking 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 your table to be embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert 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 existing tables.
Select the table you want to add to your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …
Your table will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can edit information after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Just tweak the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your content to view the updated content.
Another great time-saving feature of the TablePress plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding more 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 an existing table, click on TablePress > Export a Table in your WP admin menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, select 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 table file to your hard drive …
After making changes and resaving your table file, you can then easily re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to your Dashboard 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 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 import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, including accessing the plugin documentation for additional 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 quite a useful and feature-rich free plugin will help you easily create and embed tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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