Being able to provide visitors with tables on your content can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress offers a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that it won’t let you do by default, like being able to easily create tables.
Although you can create tables manually 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 feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and adding tables to 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 WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required.
Adding Tables To WordPress
If you want to add tables into your WordPress content and don’t have the skills or knowledge to create tables using HTML or CSS, 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.
TablePress – WP Plugin
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages a very simple and easy process.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding 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, even formulas to tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily insert tables into your page content using shortcodes and even display these inside text widgets.
A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
TablePress was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
Using TablePress Plugin For WP – Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own Dashboard …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item has been added to your admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” area 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 admin menu.
By default, the menu item appears somewhere in the middle of your menu bar. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu option close to the top of your menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu entry will now display closer towards the top of the menu …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” screen, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to change these settings, simply leave the default options.
With TablePress, you create edit and format tables inside the plugin screen. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your content. Your table will then display when your post or page is published or updated.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily update the data in your tables without having to open any of your pages and posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter 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, 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 the new table has been created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily insert tables anywhere in your content by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to display …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to your table 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 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” 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, make the background of consecutive rows alternate in color, highlight rows 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 content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can insert links and images, hide, show, insert, delete and duplicate 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, set 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 the Preview button …
A preview window will open allowing you to preview the table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your table is published …
Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your table data …
After you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by going to TablePress > All Tables …
Your tables are listed here. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview tables …
Using The Shortcode
You embed a table into page content using the TablePress shortcode.
You can 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 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 be embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside the “Text” area of the WordPress editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of all the available tables you have created.
Select the table you want to insert into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …
Your table contents 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 change 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 page 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 information, 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, click on TablePress > Export a Table in the 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 editing and resaving your file, you can then easily reimport your table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to your sidebar 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, or its own JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
To learn more about TablePress, including where to access documentation about additional features, or get technical support for the plugin, 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 quite a useful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and insert tables into your site content.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)