How To Add Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

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 format that can make your information easier to understand.

The WordPress visual editor is great, but there are some things that it doesn’t let you do by default, such as letting you 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 most non-technical users, this is simply not a practical option.

Fortunately, WordPress plugins give users almost unlimited expansion capabilities, and inserting tables into your content with the click of a mouse is no exception.

In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create and add tables into your site’s pages with no coding skills required.

Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress

If you want to add tables into your WordPress content with no coding skills required, the tutorial below will show you how to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages using a FREE plugin called TablePress.

TablePress

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

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

An additional JavaScript library can be used to add features like pagination, sorting, filtering, and more for visitors. You can easily insert tables into your posts and pages 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.

This 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 Plugin For WP – Tutorial

To create and add tables to WordPress, install and activate the TablePress plugin.

You can download this plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress

Or install it directly from within your own Dashboard …

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

Click on TablePress and choose Plugin Options from the submenu list …

The “Plugin Options” page affects the plugin’s styling and display settings …

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

Normally, the menu item displays somewhere around the middle of your menu. If you plan to use this plugin often, then you can easily position the menu item near the top of your menu by specifying “Top-level (middle)” in the User Options > Admin menu entry dropdown menu …

The TablePress menu entry will now appear close to the top of your menu …

You can also play with other options in the “Plugin Options” area, like table formatting styles, default language, etc. Leave all options as they are if you don’t need to change things in this section.

With TablePress, tables are created and edited within the plugin screen. Tables are then placed via a shortcode into your text. The table will then display or update after your content is published or updated.

The great thing about working directly from the plugin is that you can easily change the data in your tables without having to open any of your pages. The plugin then updates all of your table data inside all posts and pages where the table has been added to your content.

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

Enter 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 tables at anytime…

Once the 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 add tables anywhere inside a post or page simply by typing or copying and pasting the shortcode wherever you want to display your table …

Once a new table has been created, adding content to it is really easy.

In the “Table Content” section, just click inside the cell and either type or paste your content. You can add text, images and HTML formatting to your content (e.g. add bold text, insert links, etc …)

Once your new table is 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 and the last row of the table to be the table footer, display alternate background colors on consecutive rows, 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 modify your table content after creating it in the “Table Manipulation” subsection. You can insert images or links, hide, show, insert, delete and duplicate selected columns and rows, add new rows and columns, combine cells, etc …

You can also enable JavaScript library features in your tables that will allow your visitors to sort, filter and search your table content, set the number of table rows showing on your post (and let users 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 on your screen displaying 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 save your table data …

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

All your tables are displayed in a list. You can edit, see the shortcode, copy, export, delete and preview tables …

Using The TablePress Shortcode

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

You can get the shortcode for your tables by clicking on the Show Shortcode menu item under your 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 mouse cursor where you want your 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 in the “Text” area of the WordPress editor …

TablePress Menu Icon In Text 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 the content and click Insert Shortcode …

Your TablePress shortcode will be added to your content …

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 change things after publishing the table without having to edit your post or page. Change the content in the plugin area, then save your 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 items, 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 WP admin 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 file to your hard drive …

After changing and resaving your file, you can then reimport the table into WordPress.

To import a table into WordPress, go to the sidebar 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 format.

To import a table, select and enter the source in the “Import Tables” area. You can import multiple tables from ZIP files and select whether to import a table 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, or 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 a very useful time saving free plugin will help you easily create and insert tables into your page content.

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