How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

Being able to display tables on your website can be really handy. Tables help you sort and present data to people in a way that makes your information easier to understand.

WordPress provides users with a great visual editor, but there are some things that the default editor doesn’t do, such as giving you the option to easily create tables.

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 simply not a feasible 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 create and insert tables easily into your posts and pages with no coding skills required.

How To Create And Insert Tables Into Your Content Easily In WordPress

Follow the step-by-step tutorial below to learn how to easily create and add tables into your WordPress content using a FREE WordPress plugin called TablePress.

WordPress Plugin – TablePress

A very powerful and time-saving WordPress plugin for creating, editing and managing tables in WordPress is TablePress.

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

An additional JavaScript library can be used to include features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for your site visitors. You can include the tables into your posts and pages using shortcodes and even display tables inside text widgets.

Tables can also be imported and exported from/to CSV files (e.g. from Excel), HTML files, and JSON formats.

TablePress 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 WP – Tutorial

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

Download the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it from your Dashboard …

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new menu item in your WordPress admin menu called TablePress …

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

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

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

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

The TablePress menu entry will now show near the top section of your menu list …

You can also specify other plugin options in the “Plugin Options” area, like formatting styles for your tables, default language, etc. Leave all settings as they are if you don’t need to change things in this area.

With TablePress, you create and edit your tables within the plugin screen. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your pages and posts. The tables will then display when republishing or saving your post.

The advantage of doing this is that you can easily update the information in your tables without having to open any of your posts. TablePress then updates all of your table information in all locations where the table has been added to your content.

To add a new table select TablePress > Add New Table …

Type in the name, an optional description, 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 edit the name, description and size of any tables you create at anytime…

Once the new table is 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 in your content by simply typing 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, just click inside 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 hyperlinks, etc …)

Once your new table is created, the plugin will display additional options for configuring your table.

For example, in the “Table Options” area you can specify 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 colors on consecutive rows, highlight a row when a visitor hovers their mouse over the table, show the table name and description above or below the table, and more …

You can also edit your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can insert links and images, 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 visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your page (and let users specify the number of rows displayed), display table information, etc …

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

A preview window will open in your screen 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 when finished to update your new table data …

To view a list of all your tables TablePress > All Tables …

All the tables you have created are listed here. You can edit, see shortcodes, copy, delete, export and preview your tables …

Using The TablePress Shortcode To Insert Tables Into Your Content

You insert a table inside any page content with a shortcode.

Click on the Show Shortcode menu item under 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 the table to show then click the TablePress menu icon …

TablePress Menu Icon In Visual Editor Screen

Note: You can also insert a table when working in the “Text” area of the editor …

TablePress Menu Icon In HTML Editor Screen

Clicking on the menu icon brings up a list of all tables.

Select the table you want to insert into the post or page and click Insert Shortcode …

Your TablePress shortcode will be placed in the location you specified …

Your table 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 data after publishing the table without having to open your post or page. Just tweak the content in the plugin area, then save the new table settings and refresh your page to view the updated information.

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 an existing table, select TablePress > Export a Table in your admin menu …

In the “Export Tables” section, choose the table(s) you would like 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 table file to your hard drive …

After editing and resaving your file, you can then easily reimport your table into WordPress.

To import a table into WordPress from your hard drive, 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, 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 compressed (ZIP) file and choose whether to import tables as a new table or to replace an existing table.

For more information about the plugin, including where to access the plugin documentation for additional features, get plugin support, 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 useful time saving plugin that is free and will help you easily create and add tables into your page content.

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