At present you can’t add tables to WordPress posts or pages, because WordPress still has no built-in table creation function till now. But as we know WordPress Plugins can add a lot of new functions to WordPress including table creation function. Check out beginners guide to learn how to install WordPress plugins.
How to add Tables to WordPress Posts and Pages?
In this post we will provide a list of four WordPress table plugins, this list includes 2 Premium plugins, and 2 free WordPress plugins that will make you able to add tables to WordPress posts and pages easily.
Premium WordPress Table Plugins
#1 League Table
Price: $15 | Sales: +4,620 sale | Download
League Table is one of the most common premium WordPress plugins. This plugin allows you to create League Tables in your posts, pages, custom posts or widget areas. Although League Table was built for sports websites, it’s still one of the best choices for any WordPress site.
The table editor in this plugin is simple. You just need to set up the number of table’s columns and rows, key in the table heading, then type away into the cells. After entering all the data, you can easily sort the table by specific columns.
Plugin Features:
- It renders tables in widget.
- Simple data entry.
- You can easily customize Font and color.
- Responsiveness settings.
- It offers a very-detailed video documentation.
Plugin Cons:
- It’s a little bit expensive.
- There’s no import/export capability.
- There’s no search/sorting capability for users.
#2 wpDataTables
Price: $29 | Sales: +450 sale | Download
The second premium plugin in our list is wpDataTables this plugin pays an incredible amount of attention to detail. It offers a lot of useful features not only creation of tables, it has a set of comprehensive options.
But one of the cons is the fact that you can’t create a table directly from your WordPress dashboard — even the most basic free WordPress plugins for this job comes with live editing from within WP admin panel. For creating a table with wpDataTables you need to import Any input you use to create your tables from one of these data sources: MS Excel, CSV, MySQL queries, XML, or JSON.
Once you have your data in one of those formats, You can create the table by simply navigate to wpDataTables ⇒ Add New Page, select your import format, and then either upload the file or insert the file URL there.
wpDataTables’ Features:
- Users can copy tables to clipboard, print, or export as CSV/Excel/PDF
- Source data from: Excel, CSV, MySQL queries, XML, JSON
- Searchable (by the whole table or by a specific column)
- Almost unlimited color and font options
- Responsiveness can be toggled on/off for each table
- 40+ languages supported
- Render charts from table data
- Insert custom CSS/JS
- Order tables by specific columns
- Back-end customization ability
- Fresh styling
wpDataTables’ Cons:
- The interface is a little intimidating to new users. It takes a while getting used to and could have done with a little more organization.
- It’s a bit pricey. A version 1.6 update, due soon, will up the price even further.
- There’s no front-end table editing/creating.
Free WordPress Table Plugins
#1 TablePress
Price: FREE | Downloads: +300,000 Active Installs | Download
The third plugin in our list and the first plugin in our free plugins list is TablePress, it is the most popular table creation plugin on the WordPress.org plugin directory, with over 300,000 active installs and more than 1,990 5-star rating.
Creating a WordPress table in TablePress is straightforward, although it is a bit time-consuming. You can easily create a table directly from your WordPress dashboard, just go to TablePress ⇒ Add New Table page. First, type the name of the table and it’s description, then select the desired number of columns and rows, then press Add Table.
On the next page, enter the data for each cell individually in a spreadsheet-like interface. The editor allows you to insert images and links into table cells. The plugins also provides an Advanced Editor, which basically allows you to format your text (bolding/italicizing, inserting code, etc.).
To display the table in your post or page, enter the table shortcode.
If you have already created your table in CSV, HTML, XLS, XLSX, and JSON format, you can import it via direct file upload or by linking to the file URL.
the below picture shows the type of styling you can expect on a finished table.
TablePress’ Features:
- It offer a very straightforward data entry.
- Pagination.
- The table is Searchable
- It supports many languages
- You can import table data from: CSV, HTML, XLS, XLSX, or JSON format
- You can insert custom CSS
- It offers a nice design
- The plugin allows you to export created tables in CSV, HTML, or JSON format so that you can import them again.
TablePress’ Cons:
- It’s slightly limited in its customization ability.
- Although simple to grasp, the table creation/editing is a little slow and time-consuming.
- The table is not responsive.
#2 Easy Table
Price: FREE | Downloads: +90,000 Active installs | Download
The second free plugin and the last plugin in our list is Easy Table, This plugin is the only plugin in our list that allows you to add Tables to WordPress Posts right in the WordPress visual editor. All you need is the data and a single shortcode: [table]. Simply type in [table] while you need to insert a table, and then enter your table data, using commas to differentiate columns and spaces to differentiate rows, then simply type [/table] after entering table data (see example below).
This is what the output looks like. It’s pretty basic, with no search or pagination capabilities, although you do have the option to tint it blue (no other color customization settings included in the plugin).
The only other significant features Easy Table offers are sorting, custom CSS, and CSV file import.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Insert tables in WordPress visual editor.
- Render tables in widgets
- Basic design
- CSV file import
- Two skins: cuscosky (blue) and minimal (white)
Cons:
- It’s not responsive.
- It offers very limited customization.
- No search/sorting function available.
- Only one import format (CSV) is available.
Which plugin are you going to use to add Tables to WordPress Posts? Share your thoughts in a comment, so that others can decide which plugin is the best for them!
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