Being able to provide visitors with tables on your content can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to visitors in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t let you do, such as letting you 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 many non-technical users, this is simply not a realistic option.
Fortunately, you can do just about anything you can imagine on a WordPress site with plugins, and adding tables to your content is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your site’s pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress
To add tables into your WordPress content with no coding skills required, we’ll use a FREE plugin called TablePress.
TablePress – WP Plugin
TablePress is a great WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple user interface that allows you to easily edit table data. You can add any type of data, even formulas to your tables.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can insert tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and 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.
This plugin was created by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress Plugin For WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress posts or pages, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download this plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your own WordPress Dashboard …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item on your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can modify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your admin menu.
Normally, the menu item appears somewhere near the middle of your menu column. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu item towards the top of the menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now appear towards the top area of your menu list …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” section, such as formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, just leave the default options.
With TablePress, you create and edit tables within the plugin area. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your posts. Your tables will then display or update after your content is published.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily update the information in your tables without having to touch your posts and pages. The plugin then updates all of your table information in all locations where the table has been added to your content.
To create a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Enter 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 any table you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will be listed in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to the table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click inside the cell and type or paste the content you want to display. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. add bold text, insert hyperlinks, etc …)
After your new table has been created, additional options appear that let you configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” section you can select 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, print the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table information after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform a range of different edits on your table, like adding images and links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning selected columns and rows, adding new columns and rows, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables, such as allowing visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your page (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 on the Preview button …
A preview window will open on your browser displaying your 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 save your new table information …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this section. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode
You insert tables into pages and blog posts with a shortcode.
Get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item under 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 cursor where you want your table to be inserted then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also add a table when working in the “Text” area of the WP editor …
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 add to your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted into your content …
Your table and table contents will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
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 your new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated content.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding more data to an existing table, you can simply export your current table, then add new information, 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 main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you want 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 …
After changing and resaving your file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress, 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, 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” area. You can import multiple tables from a ZIP file and select whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.
For more information about using the plugin, including accessing the plugin documentation for additional features, or get technical support for the plugin, 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 an extremely useful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and insert tables into your page content.
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