WP Table Manager Review – Insert Tables & Charts In Content

WordPress table plugin is a great way to add a lot of information such as data, numbers, statistics or pricing plans to your site.

There are various ways a table can be used on a website. If you are using WordPress for your business, you already know how tables can be used to showcase pricing of the services/products.

Bloggers can also use tables to show information in a better way. They are very useful component but are unsupported out-of-the-box by the WordPress. WordPress comes with a visual post editor which is not good for certain things. Creating tables is one of them.

Tables are an important tool to sort and present data in an understandable format. You can also create tables by manually writing HTML and CSS inside your posts.

But that is not a simple option for most WordPress users, specially if they lack the HTML and CSS knowledge. There are much better options available for WordPress users in form of pricing and table manager plugins.

But which is best WordPress table plugin for you? Which will help you turn the tables into works of art? What if I told you there is plugin for WordPress which makes possible to not just easily add tables to your content, but also charts made from data in your tables.

 

WP Table Manager Plugin

WP Table Manager is a table management plugin for your WordPress site that offers spreadsheet interface, like in Excel, to manage tables. It is packed with some significant features which any WordPress website owner would find useful.

Spreadsheet interface makes it easier to create and modify the tables that can be inserted into pages/posts very easy with a click of a button. WP Table Manager is the only WordPress table management plugin that lets you manage tables in a spreadsheet interface (as I am aware).

 

 

The spreadsheet interface makes it easy for you to create tables, modify them and sort with the help of a drag and drop interface. You can choose one of the table themes, customize the CSS code, button, layout… to get a responsive table for your website. You can create a blank one as well.

The plugin is useful no matter if you are beginner and need only basic stuff or if you want to create stunning comparison tables, charts, pricing plans, etc.

You have the freedom to customize and use advanced tools such as edit custom CSS, Excel import/export, HTML cell Edition and many more.

 

GO Pricing vs ARPrice vs Plugmatter vs Table Manager Comparison

 

WP Table Manager Review

After you have uploaded and activated the plugin, you will see a new menu item named “Table Manager” in your WordPress dashboard. Table Manager plugin has two sections. One is configuration of plugin and other is for creating and editing tables.

There is not much configuration to be done. Just 4 settings like enabling auto save, tooltip and import/export Excel. You can also choose export file format (Excel 2003 or Excel 2007).

The main idea of WP Table Manager is to manage all the tables from editor. It works on every WordPress WYSIWYG editor, both for frontend and backend. You can start creating tables by clicking on Table Manager on left or on Table Manager bar in up left corner of your posts and pages editor.

 

 

Table Manager will open in lightbox if you click on its tab in post or page editor. If you look to the top right corner you will see a tab saying “Table” with 6 pre-designed table styles.

Clicking one of these will load it up into the main preview area, allowing you to begin editing it. If you already have data in your table and you apply a theme, data will remain untouched. If you apply a theme on a new table, example data and style will be added and can be edited.

 

How Does it Work? – Working With Spreadsheet

If you want to edit a cell’s contents, you simply double-click in the table cell and enter your new data. You can click the “Format” tab top right which will allow you to format the table with different colors, borders, fonts and heights.

Tables are classified inside categories. You can have as much tables as you want inside categories. In order to create a table category, click on New category in the left column. To create a new table just click on the link Add new table. You can change the name of category, clone it or delete it.

 

The interface works similar to Excel spreadsheets, and you can do actions such as merge cells, delete cells, add new cells, etc.

You can also change the Cell Type to default or HTML. In default, the table cell acts just like spreadsheets. If you choose HTML, you will get the whole WordPress WYSIWYG editor.

This way you can add images and other elements which are not possible to do in a simple spreadsheet. To add line or columns, click on the + on the table border or with right mouse click.

To copy cells you can use CTRL+C / CTRL+V or you can put your mouse on the bottom right corner of the cell and bring it into the direction you want. If you made a mistake or don’t like what it looks, use right mouse click and then Undo option.

 

 

The cells can also be merged. Select 2 cells or more than do a right-click. A menu will allows you to do the merging.

 

Creating Charts From Data in Tables

You can easily create charts from data in tables. The plugin comes with a chart.js integration. First create a table with data to generate chart. Choose the table columns from which you want to draw charts from. Then click on “Add new chart” button.

 

 

There are 6 types of charts available. On the right side you can select the table type.  A chart will be generated, using the data range you’ve selected. The graph will be dynamically updated even if you change data in the table.

 

 

Once your graph is added you have some options on the right column.

 

Inserting Tables and Graphs to WordPress Posts and Pages

With WP Table Manager you can easily insert charts to your content along with tables. When you want to insert a table or graph, use the top right button Insert this table to your table in your post or page. The table will be put with a grey area and an Excel like icon.

 

 

If you want to insert graph, steps are same as for table. In this case choose a graph and click Insert this chart. When you are satisfied with the table creation, you can go and publish the post/page.

 

WordPress Excel Export/Import

If you are planning to import or export data, you can do it by checking the “More” tab on the right sidebar of the main interface. The tables can be imported from excel or open office documents. The format will be detected automatically and imported. Only the first Excel page will be imported. The export can be done in Excel 2003 or 2007 format.

 

 

The More tab also offers shortcode for the tables and charts created. That means you can use shortcode to insert the table and/or chart in sidebar, footer, etc. You can also change responsiveness and add custom CSS to the table.

 

WP Table Manager Features

Here are some of the features plugin provides:

1. Spreadsheet Interface – The plugin has a spreadsheet interface which is used to create and modify table. You also have the option for adding visual formatting or HTML code.

2. Responsive and Scroll Mode – Your tables will look great on handheld devices with the option of prioritizing the columns individually to prevent important columns from getting hidden.

3. Ready Made Themes – WP Table Manager has 6 in-built themes. You can modify the existing themes as you desire or create tables from scratch.

4. Import/Export Excel Spreadsheets – You can create a table simple and fast by importing an existing Excel spreadsheet. Or export the table created using WP Table Manager to a .xls format.

5. Supports Basic Calculation – You can use basic calculation functions in the cells. Currently supported functions are SUM, COUNT, CONCAT, MIN, MAX and AVG.

6. Real-time Preview – The changes to the table are reflected in real-time. No need to refresh page/post to preview the changes every time.

7. Automatic Saving – With AJAX automatic saving and undo you do not have to worry of loosing made changes.

8. Generate Charts – You can easily generate charts from the table data using the Add a new chart tab after selecting the appropriate data. Charts to choose from are Line, Bar, Radar, PolarArea, Pie and Doughnut.

 

WP Table Manager Pros & Cons

Here are some advantages and disadvantages in WP Table Manager plugin.

Main Advantages

• Managing tables like in a spreadsheet
• Tables are responsive
• Option to prioritize columns
• Visual & HTML cell edition
• AJAX automatic saving and undo
• Create chart from data
• Real time preview of tables and charts
• Excel import/export feature

Main Disadvantages

• Only 6 ready-made themes

 

WP Table Manager Pricing Plans

All the packages are a one-time payment and can be used on unlimited websites. There are three pricing plans available for the WP Table Manager plugin. Only difference of pricing plans is in support and how long will you receive updates before you need to renew license.

 

 

Buy the product– One time price for this plan is $24 and you get to install plugin on unlimited websites and get 6-month of updates to new version of plugin. However, there is no ticket support in this plan.

6-month Support– The plan is available for $29, and everything is same as in the first plan except that this plan offers you a personal ticket support. Definitely worth to add extra 5$ to have support in case of problems.

1-year Support– The plan is available for $39 with all features as other pricing plans but with one year of updates and support. You can also check out their WordPress Bundle which consists of all WP extensions that JoomUnited has published.

 

WP Table Manager Review Final Words

This is great plugin for creating tables in WordPress and for enriching your content with graphs and charts. It is very easy to use and configure. The interface is intuitive, user-friendly and simple. You can easily learn to work with the plugin and create custom tables.

The spreadsheet like interface functioned very well so if you are used to using Excel or Google Docs spreadsheets you will have no trouble creating tables with this plugin.

I have tried creating tables by importing few simple Excel documents. Tables were created successfully. Import Excel function is very useful if you have Excel document ready and want to create tables or charts fast.

As I don’t use Excel often (rarely in fact) I couldnt create little more complicated documents to test how WP Table Manager would process them.

The 6 ready made styles are good start. But overall I found them too simple. I would like to see more themes provided and maybe more graph styles. The filter option is also something I have not seen before. You have option to filter you data per column exactly like in a spreadsheet.

It seems you can have unlimited number of columns and rows. Just be careful how it will look if you overdo it. Especially on handheld devices. This plugin has serious potential to be a popular table manager/pricing comparison tool for WordPress website owners.

As alternatives to WP Table Manager, great choices are Go Pricing (check Go Pricing review) and Plugmatter Pricing Table plugin.