The ability to easily add tables to your content can be very useful. Tables help you sort and present 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 let you do by default, such as giving you the option to easily create tables.
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 feasible option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and inserting tables into your content with the click of a mouse is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and insert tables into your content without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Create And Add Tables In Pages And Posts In WordPress
If you want to add tables to your WordPress posts or pages without touching code, the tutorial below will show you how to easily do this using a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WP Plugin
TablePress is a great WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress simple and easy.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin 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 easily insert tables into your page content using shortcodes and even display these using text widgets.
Tables can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress 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 Plugin For WP – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress posts or pages, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from within your own Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will display on your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” section controls your plugin styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify where the TablePress menu entry appears on your WP admin menu.
Normally, the menu entry appears somewhere around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option near the top of the menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now appear closer to the top section of your menu list …
You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” section, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, then just leave the options as the default.
With TablePress, you create and edit your tables within the plugin screen. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your text. Your tables will then display or update when publishing or updating your page.
The great thing about doing this is that you can easily update the data inside your tables without having to touch your pages and posts. The plugin then updates all of your table data in all locations where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in a 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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can edit the name, description and size of any table you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page 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 your table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)
After your new table has been created, the plugin also displays a number of additional options that will let you configure 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, display alternate background colours 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 edit your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can perform various manipulations on your table, like inserting links or images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected columns and rows, adding new rows and columns, combining 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 pages (and let visitors 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 in your browser displaying the table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your post or page is published …
Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your table information …
To view a list of all the tables you have created choose TablePress > All Tables …
All the tables you have created are displayed in a list. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview tables …
How To Use The TablePress Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Pages And Blog Posts
You insert a table into any content 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 appear then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of your tables.
Select the table you want to embed into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
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. Change 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 data, 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 want 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 easily re-import the table into WordPress.
To import a table, 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, or its own JSON 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 ZIP files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about using the plugin, including accessing the plugin documentation for extra features, 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 an extremely powerful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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