How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

Learn how to easily create and insert tables into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required …

Adding Tables In WordPress Content

Being able to display tables on your pages can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.

The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, like being able to easily create tables.

Although you can create tables manually in WordPress if you have knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for most non-technical WordPress users, this is not a practical 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 tutorial you will learn how to create and add tables easily into your pages and blog posts without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.

Adding Tables To WordPress

Follow the tutorial below to learn how to add tables into your WordPress content using a FREE plugin called TablePress.

WP Plugin – TablePress

How To Easily Create And Insert Tables Into WordPress Without Coding Skills

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

TablePress requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin lets you easily edit your table data. You can add any type of data to tables.

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

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

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

Using TablePress WordPress Plugin – Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

Download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it from your Dashboard …

How To Create And Add Tables In Your Content  Without Programming Skills

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see a new menu item on your admin menu called TablePress

Adding Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the list of submenus …

How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts Easily Without Touching Code

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

How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages  With No Coding Skills Required

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

By default, the menu entry displays somewhere in the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option near the top of your admin menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

How To Insert Tables Into WordPress Posts And Pages Easily Without Touching Code

The TablePress menu item will now show towards the top of the menu …

How To Easily Create And Add Tables Into Your Content With No Programming Skills Required

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

With TablePress, you create edit and format your tables inside the plugin area. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your content. The tables will then display or update when publishing your page.

The great thing about doing this is that you can easily change the data in your tables without having to open any of your posts and pages. The plugin then updates all of your table information inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.

To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table

How To Easily Create And Add Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts Without Programming Skills

Type in the name, an optional description, 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 change the name, description and size of any tables you create at anytime…

Inserting Tables  With WordPress

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

How To Easily Insert Tables Into Your Content Without Touching Code

The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …

How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts

Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is really 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 hyperlinks, etc …)

Adding Tables  In WordPress

After your new table has been created, you will see a number of additional options that will let you configure your table.

For example, in the “Table Options” section you can specify 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 a row when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …

Creating And Inserting Tables Into Posts And Pages In WordPress

You can also edit your table information after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform a range of different edits on your table, such as adding images or links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected columns and rows, adding new columns and rows, combining cells, etc …

Adding Tables In Pages And Posts With WordPress

You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows displayed on your post (and also allow users to specify the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts

You can see how your table looks anytime, by clicking the Preview button …

Creating And Adding Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

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

Inserting Tables  In WordPress

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

How To Easily Insert Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts With No Programming Skills Required

After you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by selecting TablePress > All Tables

How To Easily Insert Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts

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

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

How To Use The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Pages And Posts

You can embed tables into your content using a shortcode.

Click on the Show Shortcode menu item below your table title to get the shortcode …

How To Create And Add Tables  In WordPress

The plugin also adds a shortcode menu icon 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 your table to be embedded then click the TablePress menu icon …

Adding Tables In WordPress Content

TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen

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

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages

TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Text Editor Screen

Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of all your tables.

Select the table you want to embed in your content and click Insert Shortcode

How To Easily Create And Insert Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts With No Programming Skills Required

Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …

How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress

The table contents will display as soon as you publish your post or page …

Creating And Adding Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

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

Another great time-saving feature of the TablePress plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding new 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 an existing table, select TablePress > Export a Table in the WP admin menu …

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts

In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) to export (you can 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 …

How To Create And Add Tables In Your Content  Without Touching Code

After editing and resaving the table file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.

To import a table, go to the menu and choose TablePress > Import a Table

How To Easily Insert Tables Into WordPress With No Coding Skills Required

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” section. You can import multiple tables from a ZIP file and choose whether to import a table as a new table or write over an existing table.

Adding Tables In WordPress Content

To learn more about TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, get plugin support, contact the plugin author, etc., click on the “About Tab” in the plugin admin section, or select TablePress > About TablePress

Adding Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages

As you can see, TablePress is a very powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your page content.

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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie

Originally published as How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages.