The ability to easily add tables to your pages can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to visitors in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress offers a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t let you do, such as giving you the option to create tables without having to learn code.
Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical users, this is not a practical option.
Fortunately, you can do almost anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and adding tables to 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 site’s pages with no coding skills required.
How To Insert Tables Into Your Content With WordPress
To create and add tables into your WordPress content without touching code, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages a very simple and easy process.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit table data. Tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily insert tables into your content using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
TablePress was developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress Plugin For WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress using TablePress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it from your WP Dashboard …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item on your main menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” screen 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 entry displays somewhere around the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu option near the top of your 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 of the menu list …
You can also specify other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” area, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to modify this section, just leave the default options.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin section. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your content. Your table will then display or update when saving your post.
The benefit of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the information inside your tables without having to open any of your posts. The plugin then updates all of your table information in all instances where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter the name, an optional description, and the number of rows and columns you want 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 change the name, description and size of your table at anytime…
Once the 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 insert tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to display …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, just click in the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, 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 select the first row of your table to be the table header or the last row of the table to be the table footer, make the background of consecutive rows alternate in color, highlight a row when visitors hover their mouse over the table, print the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table information after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can add images or links, hide, show, insert, delete and clone selected rows and columns, add new columns and rows, combine 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 post (and also allow visitors to specify 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 displaying your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once 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 selecting TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this area. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview tables …
Using The Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Pages And Posts
You can insert tables into content using a shortcode.
Get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item below your table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a menu item 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 the table to be inserted 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 HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of your existing tables.
Select the table you want to embed into the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted into your content …
Publish the post or page to display your table …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about TablePress is that you can edit information after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Tweak the content in the plugin area, then save your 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, just export your current table, then add new data, 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 an existing table, select TablePress > Export a Table in your 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 editing and resaving the table file, you can then easily reimport your table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to your admin menu and choose 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 import source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
To learn more about using TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for extra features, get technical 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 an extremely powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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