The ability to easily add tables to your website 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 provides users with a feature-rich visual editor, 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 WordPress users, this is simply not a feasible option.
Fortunately, WordPress plugins let you do almost anything you can imagine, and adding tables to your content with the click of a mouse is no exception.
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your WordPress posts and pages without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.
How To Create And Add Tables In Pages And Posts With WordPress
If you want to create and add tables into your WordPress content and don’t have the skills to create these using HTML or CSS, the tutorial below will show you how to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
WP Plugin – TablePress
TablePress is a powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress simple and easy.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. The plugin provides a simple 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 include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for visitors. You can easily include the tables into your content using shortcodes and even display tables using text widgets.
You can also import and export tables from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON.
The plugin was written and developed by Tobias Bäthge and is licensed as Free Software under GNU General Public License 2 (GPL 2).
How To Use TablePress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and manage tables in WordPress using TablePress, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
Download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from within your Dashboard …
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will display on your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the list of submenus …
The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s behavior in different areas of your site …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your admin menu.
Normally, the menu entry appears somewhere near the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can easily position the menu option towards the top of the admin menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays at the top area of the admin menu …
You can also specify other settings in the “Plugin Options” tab, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. If you don’t need to modify these settings, then just leave the default options.
With TablePress, tables are created and modified within the plugin screen. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your posts. The table will then display or update after your post or page is published or updated.
The benefit of doing this is that you can easily update the data in your tables without having to manually edit your posts and pages. The plugin then updates all of your table data everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …
Type in a 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 table you create at anytime…
Once the new table is created, it will appear in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode lets you easily insert tables anywhere in your content by simply inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display a table …
Once you have created a new table, adding content to it is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and format your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)
After your new table has been created, you will see a number of additional options that will allow you to configure your table.
For example, in the “Table Options” area 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, 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 after it has been created in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can perform a number of table manipulations, like adding links or images, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and cloning 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 site visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows displayed 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 screen allowing you to preview the table. Certain features like JavaScript options are disabled in preview mode, but will display when your post or page is published …
Remember to click the Save Changes button after you are done editing to update your new table data …
To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …
Your tables are listed here. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …
Using The Shortcode
You embed a table into posts and pages using the TablePress shortcode.
Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under the table title to get the shortcode …
The plugin also adds a shortcode menu icon 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 embedded 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 editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon displays a list of your available tables.
Select the table you want to embed in your post or page and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be inserted …
The 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 data 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 information.
Another great time-saving feature of this 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 table 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 main menu …
In the “Export Tables” section, choose 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 file to your hard drive …
After editing and resaving your file, you can then easily 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 resembling a webpage, or its own JSON format.
To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” section. You can import multiple tables from a compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or replace an existing table.
To learn more about the plugin, 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 quite a powerful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and embed tables into your site content.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum