Displaying data in concise tables is a useful way to show comparisons or present statistics in a clear and legible format. Creating tables in WordPress used to be challenging if you didn’t know HTML. Thankfully it is now easier by using the built-in Table block or the Advanced Tables plugin.
Simple Tables with the Table Block
The Block editor has a built-in Table block. If you are not yet using the block editor, you can enable it by following our instructions.
To add a Table block, click on the Block Inserter icon (the plus sign at the top) and type ‘table’ in the search field. In the table block settings, choose the number of columns and rows you think you will need and click Create Table. You can always add more later. It’s that easy. Fill in your content and choose a style.
Example of a simple table using the Table Block
| UC Campus | Enrollment | Year Founded |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 40,173 | 1868 |
| Davis | 37,397 | 1905 |
| Irvine | 33,467 | 1965 |
| Los Angeles | 44,947 | 1919 |
| Merced | 7,336 | 2005 |
| Riverside | 22,990 | 1954 |
| San Diego | 40,473 | 1960 |
| San Francisco | 4,857 (graduate only) | 1864 |
| Santa Barbara | 24,346 | 1909 |
| Santa Cruz | 18,783 | 1965 |
Advanced Tables with TablePress
We also have a Plugin called Advanced Tables by TablePress that allows you to create beautiful, sortable, and searchable tables easily. You can import and export your data from Excel, CSV, HTML, and JSON files.
To activate Advanced Tables, go to Plugins > All Plugins, find Advanced Tables click the Activate button.
Once activated, you will have a new TablePress area in your Dashboard to create your tables. Add the tables anywhere you need them using the provided shortcode. Here is an example of the same data using TablePress. With this table, you can sort or search. This works very well for displaying a lot of data.
Example of a more advanced table using TablePress
| UC Campus | Enrollment | Year Founded |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 40,173 | 1868 |
| Davis | 37,397 | 1905 |
| Irvine | 33,467 | 1965 |
| Los Angeles | 44,947 | 1919 |
| Merced | 7,336 | 2005 |
| Riverside | 22,990 | 1954 |
| San Diego | 40,473 | 1960 |
| San Francisco | 4,857 (graduate only) | 1864 |
| Santa Barbara | 24,346 | 1909 |
| Santa Cruz | 18,783 | 1965 |