How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

The ability to easily add tables to your content can be very useful. Tables are great for sorting and presenting 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 it won’t let you do by default, 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 WordPress users, this is not a realistic option.

Fortunately, WordPress plugins give users almost unlimited expansion capabilities, and inserting tables into your content is no exception.

In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and insert tables into your content without requiring knowledge of HTML or CSS or coding skills.

How To Create And Add Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

If you want to add tables to your WordPress posts or pages without touching code, then the tutorial below will show you how to easily do this using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.

TablePress – WordPress Plugin

TablePress is a powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress simple and easy.

TablePress doesn’t require you to have any knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. It lets you easily edit your table data. Your tables can contain any type of data, even formulas.

An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for site users. You can easily insert tables into your post content 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 formats.

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

Using TablePress – Step-By-Step Tutorial

To create and manage tables in WordPress posts and pages, install and activate the TablePress plugin.

Download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it from your Dashboard …

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu item will be added to your Dashboard menu called TablePress …

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

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

For example, in the “User Options” section, you can specify where the TablePress menu entry appears on your Dashboard menu.

By default, the menu item appears somewhere around the middle of your menu bar. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can position the menu option near the top of your Dashboard menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” on the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

The TablePress menu entry will now display closer to the top of the menu …

You can also play with other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” section, like 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 area.

With TablePress, tables are created and edited within the plugin area. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your pages. Your table will then display or update after your post or page is published or updated.

The advantage of doing this is that you can easily modify the information inside your tables without having to manually edit your pages. TablePress then updates all of your table data inside all posts and pages 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 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 edit the name, description and size of any table you create at anytime…

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

The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily insert tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want your table to be displayed …

Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is really 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. 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” 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, display alternate background colours on consecutive rows, highlight a row 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 modify your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” area. You can insert images or links, hide, show, insert, delete and clone selected columns and rows, add new columns and rows, combine 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, change the number of table rows displayed on your posts (and let visitors change the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …

You can preview your table anytime, by clicking on the Preview button …

A preview window will open allowing you to preview the table. Certain features such as the 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 table information …

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

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

How To Use The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Content

You insert a table inside any content with a shortcode.

You can get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item below your 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 your table to appear 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 opens a window containing a list of all the available tables you have created.

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

Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …

Publish your post or page to view your table and table contents …

As stated earlier, one of the great things about TablePress is that you can change the contents of your table after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change 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 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 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, click on 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 re-import your table into WordPress.

To import a table, 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.

To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” area. 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 the plugin, including accessing documentation about additional features, 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 quite a powerful and feature-rich plugin that is free and will help you easily create and insert tables into your page content.

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