How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

The ability to easily add tables to your pages can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors in a way that makes your information easier to understand.

WordPress provides users with a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor won’t 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 have knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical users, this is not a feasible option.

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

In this step-by-step 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.

Creating And Adding Tables In Pages And Posts With WordPress

To add tables to your WordPress posts or pages with no coding skills required, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.

TablePress

A 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 is TablePress.

TablePress does not require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple user 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 add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for visitors. You can easily insert tables into your pages and blog posts using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.

A table can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.

TablePress was written and developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).

Using TablePress WordPress Plugin – Tutorial

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

Download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it directly from your own WordPress Dashboard …

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see a new menu item displayed in your Dashboard menu called TablePress …

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

The “Plugin Options” area affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …

For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your Dashboard menu.

Normally, the menu item appears around the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu item near the top of the menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

The TablePress menu entry now appears towards the top area of your menu …

You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” area, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, and so on. If you don’t need to modify these settings, then just leave the options as the default.

With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your posts. Your table will then display when your content is saved.

The advantage of working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the information in your tables without having to manually edit your pages. 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 a table name, an optional description, and the number of rows and columns you want for your 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 be added to the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …

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

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

In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and either type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. bold or italicize words, 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 a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …

You can also edit your table information after it has been created 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, such as allowing your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, change the number of table rows displayed on your content (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 in your browser allowing you to preview the table. Certain features such as the JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your table is published …

Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your new table information …

Once you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by clicking on TablePress > All Tables …

Your tables are listed here. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, delete, export and preview tables …

How To Use The TablePress Shortcode

You insert tables into your content with a 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 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 embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …

TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen

Note: You can also add a table when working inside the “Text” area of the WordPress 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 your content and click Insert Shortcode …

Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted …

Publish your post or page to view the 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 edit your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your content to view the updated information.

Another great time-saving feature of this 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 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 your WP 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 changing and resaving your file, you can then re-import the table into WordPress.

To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, go to your admin menu and select 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 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 import multiple tables from a ZIP file and select whether to import a table as a new table or write over an existing table.

For more information about the plugin, including accessing the plugin documentation for extra features, or get plugin 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 an extremely useful and feature-rich free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your site content.

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