Being able to provide visitors with tables on your content can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.
WordPress offers a great visual editor, 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 add tables manually to your content in WordPress if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for many non-technical WordPress users, this is not a feasible option.
Fortunately, you can do almost anything you need done on a WordPress site with plugins, and creating tables is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and insert tables into your WordPress posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Add Tables In WordPress
Follow the tutorial below to learn how to create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
TablePress
TablePress is a very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress.
TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple user interface that lets you easily edit your table data. Tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and display these inside text widgets.
You can also import and export a table from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.
The 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 with TablePress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your own Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your WP admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can specify the position of the TablePress menu entry in your WP admin menu.
By default, the menu item appears somewhere in the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu item close to the top of your menu by choosing “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item will now show near the top section of the menu …
You can also specify other options in the “Plugin Options” section, such as formatting styles for your tables, default language, and so on. Leave all options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin section. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your posts. The table will then display when republishing or saving your page.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily modify the information in your tables without having to open any of your posts and pages. TablePress 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 …
Type in the 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, and 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 your new table has been created, it will appear in the “All Tables” list and be 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 your table to display …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is very easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format 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 allow you to 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 rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, display the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also edit your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can perform various edits on your table, like adding images and links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating selected rows and columns, adding new rows and columns, combining cells, etc …
You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables, such as allowing your site users to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your content (and also allow visitors to specify 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 in your browser allowing you to preview your table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display once your post or page is published …
Click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to save your table data …
To view a list of all the tables you have created click on TablePress > All Tables …
All the tables you have created are listed here. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Pages And Blog Posts
You insert tables inside any page content using the TablePress shortcode.
Get the shortcode for your tables by clicking 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 inserted then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside the “Text” area of the editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In Text Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of all existing tables.
Select the table you want to insert into your content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted …
The table contents will display as soon as you publish your post or page …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can edit the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Tweak the content in the plugin area, then save your new table settings and refresh your post to view the updated content.
Another great time-saving feature of this plugin, is that if you plan to keep adding data to an existing table, you can simply 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 main 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 changing and resaving your file, you can then easily reimport the table into WordPress.
To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, go to your admin menu and choose 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 format. You can also import existing tables from the WP-Table Reloaded plugin
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” section. You can also 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 TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, get technical support for the plugin, 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 quite a powerful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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