How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

The ability to easily add tables to your content can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to visitors in a format that can make your information easier to understand.

The WordPress visual editor offers many features, but there are some things that the default editor won’t do, like being able 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 most non-technical users, this is simply not a feasible option.

Fortunately, you can do almost 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 tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required.

How To Create And Insert Tables Into Posts And Pages With WordPress

If you want to add tables into your WordPress content and don’t have the skills or knowledge to create these using HTML or CSS, the step-by-step tutorial below will show you how to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.

TablePress – WP Plugin

A powerful and time-saving plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.

TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple interface that lets you easily edit your table data. Tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.

An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for site users. You can include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.

You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.

This plugin 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 WordPress – Tutorial

To create and manage tables in WordPress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.

You can download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it directly from within your WP Dashboard …

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item displayed in your WP admin 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 modify where the TablePress menu entry appears on your WP admin menu.

Normally, the menu entry displays somewhere in the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu option towards the top of the menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

The TablePress menu entry will now appear closer to the top of your menu …

You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” section, like table formatting styles, default language, and so on. Leave all options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.

With TablePress, tables are created and modified inside the plugin section. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your posts. The tables will then display when your content is published or updated.

The advantage of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily modify the data in your tables without having to manually edit your pages. The plugin then updates all of your table information everywhere where the table has been added to your content.

To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …

Type in the name, a description (optional), and the number of rows and columns you want 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 tables you create at anytime…

Once your new table is created, it will be added to the “All Tables” list and be assigned a unique Shortcode ID …

The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your tables to be displayed …

Once a new table has been created, adding content to your table is very easy.

In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and type or paste your content. 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” 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 colors on consecutive rows, highlight rows when a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …

You can also edit your table content after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform various edits on your table, like inserting links and images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected rows and columns, adding new columns and rows, 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, change the number of table rows showing on your pages (and let users specify the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …

You can preview your table anytime, by clicking on the Preview button …

A preview window will open allowing you to preview your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your table is published …

Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to save your new table information …

After 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 section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview tables …

How To Use The TablePress Shortcode

You can embed a table into your posts and pages with the TablePress shortcode.

Click on the Show Shortcode menu item below the 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 the table to appear then click the TablePress menu icon …

TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen

Note: You can also add a table when working inside the “Text” area of the WP editor …

TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen

Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all your tables.

Select the table you want to insert into your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …

Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …

Publish the post or page to display your table contents …

As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can change the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your post to view the updated information.

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 items, 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 main menu …

In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) 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 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 resembling a webpage, 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 a compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import a table as a new table or to replace an existing table.

For more information about using TablePress, including accessing documentation about extra features, or 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 a very powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your site content.

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