How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

The ability to easily add tables to your website can be very useful. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors in a format that can make your information easier to understand.

WordPress offers a great 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 know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical users, this is simply not a realistic option.

Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and creating tables is no exception.

In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your site’s pages with no coding skills required.

How To Create And Insert Tables Into WordPress Easily

Follow the tutorial below to learn how to easily add tables in WordPress using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.

TablePress

TablePress is a great plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in your WordPress posts and pages simple and easy.

TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. It lets you easily edit table data. You can add any type of data, even formulas to your tables.

An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for site users. You can insert tables into your 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 Plugin For WP – Tutorial

To create and add tables to WordPress posts or pages, install and activate the TablePress plugin.

You can download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it from your Dashboard …

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will display on your WP admin menu called TablePress …

Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …

The “Plugin Options” screen controls your plugin styling and display settings …

For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your WP admin menu.

Normally, the menu entry appears somewhere in 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 your Dashboard menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

The TablePress menu entry will now appear close to the top of the menu list …

You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” area, such as table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify this section, just leave the options as the default.

With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your text. The table will then display after publishing your pages or posts.

The benefit of doing this is that you can easily update the information inside your tables without having to open any of your pages and posts. TablePress 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 a table 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, 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 is created, it will display in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …

The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily add tables anywhere in your content simply by typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …

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

In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, insert links, etc …)

Once your new table is created, displays a number of additional options that will let you configure your table.

For example, in the “Table Options” area 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, 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” section. You can add links and images, hide, show, insert, delete and clone 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 your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your page (and also allow users to 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 in your browser displaying the table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your table is published …

Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your new table data …

After 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 the tables you have created will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …

Using The TablePress Shortcode

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

Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under 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 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 WordPress 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 view your table and table contents …

As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can edit information after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change 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 more 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, select 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 table file to your hard drive …

After editing and resaving your table file, you can then easily reimport your 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 format.

To import a table, select and enter the import source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from compressed (ZIP) files and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.

For more information about using TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, or get technical support, 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 a very powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your page content.

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