The ability to easily add tables to your pages 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 offers many great features, but there are some things that it won’t do by default, like being able to 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 WordPress users, this is simply 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 tutorial you will learn how to create and insert tables easily into your posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Insert Tables Into Pages And Posts In WordPress
If you want to add tables to your WordPress posts or pages with no coding skills required, then 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
TablePress is a great WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple user interface that allows you to easily edit table data. Tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can include the tables into your page content using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
You can also import and export tables from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress was developed 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 with TablePress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your own Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your main menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” section controls your plugin styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can specify where the TablePress menu entry appears on your WP admin 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 position the menu item closer to the top of the admin menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays towards the top area of the menu list …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” screen, such as table formatting styles, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to modify this section, simply leave the default options.
With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin screen. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your posts. The tables will then display or update when your content is published.
The benefit of doing this is that you can easily change the information inside your tables without having to open any of 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 the 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, and click on the Add Table button to create your new table. You can change the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once the new table is created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere in your content by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. add bold text, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
Once your new table is created, displays 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 or 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 modify your table after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a number of operations on your table, such as inserting links and images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning selected columns and rows, adding new rows and columns, combining 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, change the number of table rows showing on your pages (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 on the Preview button …
A preview window will open on your browser displaying your table. Certain features like 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 new table information …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this screen. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The TablePress Shortcode
You can embed a table inside any content with the TablePress shortcode.
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 cursor where you want the table to appear 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 WP editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of all your existing tables.
Select the table you want to add to the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted …
Publish your post or page to display your table contents …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about TablePress is that you can edit things after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Edit the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your post to view the updated content.
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 information, 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 the main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you want 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 making changes and resaving your table file, you can then reimport 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, 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 import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and choose whether to import a table as a new table or replace an existing table.
For more information about using TablePress, including where to access documentation about extra 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 a very powerful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your site content.
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