The ability to easily add tables to your content can be really handy. Tables are great for sorting and presenting data to people in a format that can make your information easier to understand.
WordPress provides users with a feature-rich visual editor, but there are some things that it doesn’t 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 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 create and add tables easily into your content with no coding skills required.
How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress Pages And Posts
To add tables into your WordPress content with no coding skills required, we’ll use a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.
WordPress Plugin – TablePress
A powerful and time-saving plugin that makes creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress a very simple and easy process is TablePress.
TablePress requires no knowledge or skills coding HTML, CSS, etc. It provides a simple interface that allows you to easily edit your table data. Your tables can contain any kind of data, even formulas.
An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like sorting, pagination, filtering, and more for your visitors. You can easily include the tables into your page content using shortcodes and display these using text widgets.
Tables 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 – Step-By-Step Tutorial
To create and add tables to WordPress posts and pages, first install and activate the TablePress plugin.
You can download the plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress
Or install it directly from your WP Dashboard …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, a new menu item will appear on your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …
Click on TablePress and select Plugin Options from the submenu list …
The “Plugin Options” area affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …
For example, in the “User Options” section, you can change the position of the TablePress menu entry in your admin menu.
Normally, the menu item appears somewhere near the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin a lot, then you can position the menu item towards the top of the menu by selecting “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …
The TablePress menu item now displays near the top section of the admin menu …
You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” area, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave the settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.
With TablePress, tables are created and formatted inside the plugin section. Tables are then inserted via a shortcode into your pages and posts. The tables will then display or update when your post or page is published or updated.
The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily update the data in your tables without having to touch your posts and pages. The plugin then updates all of your table data everywhere where the table has been added to your content.
To create 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 your 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 edit the name, description and size of any tables you create at anytime…
Once your new table has been created, it will appear in the “All Tables” list and get assigned a unique Shortcode ID …
The TablePress shortcode allows you to easily add tables anywhere inside a post or page by simply inserting or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …
Once a new table has been created, adding content to your table is easy.
In the “Table Content” section, click in the cell and either 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 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 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 colors on consecutive rows, highlight rows when visitors hover their mouse over the table, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …
You can also modify your table after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” section. You can perform various table edits, such as inserting images and links, hiding, showing, inserting, deleting and duplicating 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 content (and let users 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 displaying your 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 when finished to update your table information …
After you have created one or more tables, you can view a list of all your tables by clicking on TablePress > All Tables …
A list of all your tables will be displayed in this area. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview your tables …
How To Use The Shortcode To Embed Tables Into Your Pages And Posts
You can insert a table inside any pages and blog posts with the TablePress 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 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 cursor where you want the table to be inserted then click the TablePress menu icon …
TablePress Menu Icon In WordPress Visual Editor Screen
Note: You can also insert a table when working inside the “Text” area of the WordPress editor …
TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen
Clicking on the menu icon opens a window containing a list of your available tables.
Select the table you want to insert into the content and click Insert Shortcode …
Your TablePress shortcode will be added …
Publish the post or page to display the table …
As stated earlier, one of the great things about this plugin is that you can edit things after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your post 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 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, select the table(s) you want 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 making changes and resaving your table file, you can then re-import your table into WordPress.
To import a table, go to your menu and 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” section. You can import multiple tables from a ZIP file and select whether to import tables as a new table or write over an existing table.
For more information about using TablePress, including where to access the plugin documentation for extra features, get plugin 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 add tables into your WordPress posts and pages.
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