Posts Table Pro gives you full control over the data displayed in the table. You can choose which columns to include in each table, as well as edit or hide the column headers.

How to add and edit columns

You can manage your table columns as follows:

• Add Table - A columns option appears when you use the table builder to create a new table (Post Tables → Add New).
• Edit Table - The column option is available when you edit a table (Post Tables → Edit).
• Settings Page - You can set default columns on the settings page (Post Tables → Settings). These will be used for all new tables, and you can override the defaults for each individual table.
• Shortcode - You can also configure columns directly in the Posts Table Pro shortcode.

Available columns

You can choose as many columns as you want and in any order. In addition, you can create combined columns which merge one or more columns into a single column.

• ID - Displays the post ID, which is a unique number used internally by WordPress for each post.
• Title - The main post title.
• Content - Shows the post content but will be truncated to 15 words. You can modify this length by setting the Content length option.
• Excerpt - Shows the post excerpt (or a dynamically generated excerpt based on the main content if there is no excerpt). It will be truncated to 55 words (the WordPress default) but themes and plugins sometimes override this value. To have precise control over the length, you can set the Excerpt length option.
• Image - Displays the featured image (i.e. the post thumbnail) for the post or page (see Image size option to set a custom size).
• Date - Displays the date that the post was published.
• Date modified - Displays the date that the post was last updated.
• Author - Displays the post author’s display name.
• Categories and tags - These columns only apply to standard WordPress posts posts only (not custom post types) and will display the categories or tags for each post (comma-separated if there are more than one).
• Status - Shows the status of the post (e.g. draft, pending, publish, etc).
• Button - Displays a button linking to the single post page. If you're using Posts Table Pro with the Page Links To plugin, which lets you replace the single post page with another URL, then this will work with the button column. For example, this is useful if you're creating a resource library and want to add 'Download' buttons to the table. You can change the button text using the Button text option.

 

The available columns are: id, title, content, excerpt, image, date, date_modified, author, categories, tags, status, button, or any custom field or taxonomy. These column names are case sensitive and should always be lower case. (If you're using custom column headings then these can be any case.)

Custom field columns

Custom fields are a good way to include other types of content in the table. You can use them to store links, buttons, icons, shortcodes from other plugins, etc.

If you’re adding shortcodes to your custom fields, you will need to set shortcodes to true.

Tip: Use the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin to create custom fields.

The method for adding custom field columns depends on how you created the custom fields:

Custom fields created using the ACF or Easy Post Types plugins

If you created the custom field using either the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin, ACF or Advanced Custom Fields Pro then they will appear in the list of columns for you to select. For example, you have an ACF field called "Reference" then a "Reference" column will appear in the list of available columns. You can then add this to the table, just like any other column.

Custom fields created using any other method

If your custom field was created using any other method - for example, using another plugin or programmatically - then you need to add it as a column manually:

1. Select 'Custom field' from the list of available columns on the 'Table columns' page of the table builder.
2. Add the custom field name, e.g. "reference" if the custom field is called "reference".

 

Custom fields created using the Toolset plugin

If you're using Toolset to create your custom fields, then you need slightly different syntax to display them in the table.

Toolset adds wpcf- to the start of the custom field name, so if you create a custom field called 'link' (for example) then the correct syntax will be wpcf-link.

ACF repeater fields

If you're using Advanced Custom Fields Pro repeater fields, you can create a column using the name of the parent repeater field. This column will list the content of all the repeater fields for that post, separated by commas. It is not possible to display repeater sub-fields as separate columns in the table.

ACF group fields

Please see our separate article on how to display sub-fields which are part of an ACF group field.

Custom taxonomy columns

Custom taxonomies are a good way to add extra ways to group and filter your posts, similar to categories and tags. You can display them as columns in the table.

Tip: If you haven't created taxonomies yet then you can easily do this with the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin.

On the 'Table columns' page of the table builder, the custom taxonomies for your selected post type will appear in the list of available columns. For example, if your post type has a 'Company' taxonomy then this will appear as a possible column. Simply select a taxonomy from the dropdown to add it as a column.

Author column

The Author column displays the name of the WordPress user who created the post. If you're creating an author column and need more flexibility - for example because you are creating a publications database and want to add the publication author - then you should use a different type of column instead. For example:

• You could use the categories or tags column and rename it to 'Author'.
• You could create a custom taxonomy for 'Author'.

Combined columns

The "Combined column" type allows you to merge one or more columns into a single column. For example, the 'Title' column in this screenshot combines the post title and excerpt columns into one:

To create a combined column, select 'Combined column' from the list of columns. You can then select all the columns that you wish to appear inside it.

Notes and tips: 

• By default, the combined column will have a label of "Combined column". We recommend either changing this to something more relevant to your store, or disabling the 'Show column heading' option in the Advanced settings for the combined column.
• You can optionally add a label which will appear before the content of each sub-column followed by a colon - e.g. "Date: 01-03-2027". If the content of your sub-columns is self-explanatory then you don't need to add a label.
• Some sub-columns have an option to be clickable - for example, the 'Title' column can link to the single product page.
• Each sub-column has a 'New Line' toggle. Enable this if you want to add a paragraph break above the previous sub-column.

Creating custom columns programmatically

Developer can use custom columns to display data programmatically which is not available as one of the standard table columns.

Learn how to create custom columns

Choosing your own column headings

You can change the wording of your column headings, or hide them completely.

Click the pencil icon next to the column. Change the column name to whatever you like, or deactivate the 'Show column name' toggle to remove the column name completely.

How to hide a column

You can easily hide columns simply by removing them from the list of columns in the table.

If you wish to hide a column on specific devices only (e.g. mobiles or tablets), please see the responsive visibility option which allows you to do this.

Related Articles

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• Adding a button column to the posts table
• Posts Table Pro – Full list of options
• Posts table image options
• Posts table caching
• Mobile visibility & responsive options