Articles About Website Navigation

Did you know categories and tags in WordPress can be used for pages as well as posts? Creating WordPress page categories allows you to organize your website’s content making it easy for users to navigate through it. You can then display pages by category, restrict access to them, and lots of other fun stuff.

Categories and tags can be used to organize and sort your WordPress pages and content to improve your website's navigation structure. However, in a default WordPress website, you can’t add categories to pages - you can only add them to posts. Watch this video or read on for a clever solution.

So, in this article, we’re going to show you how to:

Yep, it's 4 WordPress tutorials in one! But first, let’s look at the difference between pages and posts in WordPress.

What is the difference between posts and pages?

A lot of people wonder about WordPress pages vs posts. After all, they seem similar but are actually designed for different purposes.

WordPress pages are similar to posts and can be created in the same way. Pages are made for static content such as the About Us page, FAQ pages, Terms of use, etc. Posts, on the other hand, are made for dynamic content such as blog posts, think pieces, news articles, etc.

Posts are archived by WordPress since the authors and the time of publication are relevant. This is why the tag and category options are available for posts. They enable users to easily find the information they are looking for within the WordPress archive page. Pages on the other hand do not have tags and category options.

WordPress categories vs tags

It's also worth explaining the difference between WordPress categories vs tags.

When creating content, two important tools for organizing your content are categories and tags in WordPress. While they may seem similar at first, there are some key differences between them.

Categories are used to organize content into broad topics or themes. They are hierarchical in nature, meaning that you can create parent and child categories to create a logical structure for your content. For example, if you're a good blogger, you might create categories such as "Recipes," "Restaurants," and "Cooking Tips." You could then create child categories under "Recipes" such as "Vegetarian" or "Desserts." Categories are typically displayed on your WordPress site as a list of links, making it easy for users to navigate to related content.

Tags, on the other hand, are used to provide more specific details about the content. They are non-hierarchical and allow you to add keywords or phrases to describe your content in more detail. For example, if you have a blog post about a vegan dessert recipe, you might use tags such as "vegan," "dessert," and "recipe." Tags in WordPress are typically displayed as a cloud or a list of links, allowing users to easily find related content.

The main difference between categories and tags is the level of specificity they provide. Categories are used to group content into broad topics, while tags provide more specific details about the content. Categories are hierarchical, while tags are not. Another difference is how they are displayed on your website, with categories typically being displayed as a list and tags as a cloud or a list of links.

Do I want page categories or tags?

It's important to use both WordPress categories and tags effectively to help users find related content on your website. Categories provide a broad structure for your content, while tags allow you to provide more specific details. When creating content, consider which category it belongs to and which tags would be most relevant. By using WordPress categories and tags effectively, you can create a more organized and user-friendly website that is easy to navigate and explore.

It sounds like adding categories and tags in WordPress to pages would be valuable to both your site and the users. However, WordPress doesn't have categories or tags for pages! Let's look at why next, and then how you can add them anyway.

Why doesn't WordPress have page categories?

In the WordPress Dashboard, navigate to the 'Posts' section. Sure enough, you'll see a 'Categories' section in there.

Now go to the 'Pages' section. Where's the 'Categories' section?

That's right, page categories don't exist in WordPress.

While WordPress offers many useful features to create and organize content, one limitation that users often face is the inability to categorize pages.

Unlike posts, which can be assigned to WordPress categories and tags, pages are designed to be static and hierarchical in nature. They are typically used for content that doesn't change frequently, such as "About Us" or "Contact Us" pages. Pages also serve as a foundation for organizing the structure of a website, with the parent-child relationship between pages used to create menus and submenus.

So, why are there no WordPress page categories?

The answer lies in the fundamental differences between posts and pages. Posts are designed to be time-sensitive and organized by categories and tags to make it easier for readers to find specific content. Pages, on the other hand, are not designed for frequent updates. They're not intended to be displayed in a list format, making categories less relevant.

Another reason why categorizing pages is not a built-in feature of WordPress is that it could potentially confuse users and complicate the structure of a website. If pages were to be categorized like posts, it could lead to a cluttered and confusing hierarchy, making it difficult for users to find what they are looking for.

But I want to categorize my WordPress pages!

In my opinion, there are lots of valid reasons to create WordPress categories. It all depends on how you're using pages, and how you're structuring your content.

Fortunately, there are easy solutions to this limitation in WordPress. These are no-code solutions and beginner friendly. You don't need to edit any PHP or edit the functions.php file.

One option is to use custom taxonomies, which allow you to create new WordPress categories and tags for your pages. This requires some technical knowledge, but there are plugins available that can simplify the process. I'll tell you about the best plugins for creating WordPress page categories in a minute.

Benefits of using page categories and tags in WordPress

They improve your SEO

Using categories and tags to sort your WordPress website content helps to drive organic traffic to your site. Tags resemble the keywords that users perform searches with. When they use these keywords, search engines (mainly Google) are more likely to direct them to your website. This will boost your overall domain authority and Google SERPs ranking.

They improve user experience

Sorting your content makes it more easily accessible and readers can easily navigate through it. They will be able to find the content they are looking for much faster, which reduces bounce rates and improves reader satisfaction. It is also more likely to increase conversions for the clicks that your WordPress website is receiving.

Now that you have seen the importance of tags and categories for your pages, when you should use them?

When should you use categories, tags, or custom taxonomies?

Categories in WordPress are used to broadly group related pages. Suppose you sell shoes in a WooCommerce shop, you could have the following categories: men’s shoes, women’s shoes, etc. Within these categories, it is advisable to have sub-categories (for example men’s sneakers), as categories tend to have a hierarchical structure.

Tags on the other hand have no hierarchical structure. They label particular topics within a page. For this reason, it’s common to find multiple tags on a single page. In the above example, you can add tags such as ‘stylish shoes’, ‘budget shoes’, etc. Tags may cut across different categories and sub-categories.

There is another option to create custom taxonomies when you want to group pages in multiple ways, for example, category and department. In a nutshell, use categories for organizing your pages into logical groups and tags to label a particular topic within a page (no hierarchical structure). Finally, use custom taxonomy if you intend to group pages in multiple ways.

The next step after knowing when to use categories and tags for your pages is knowing how you can enable them for your pages.

The best plugin to enable categories and tags for WordPress pages

The easiest way to enable categories and tags for your WordPress pages is by using a plugin. We recommend using the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin for this. This free plugin from wordpress.org lets you quickly add categories and tags to your WordPress pages. While it's designed for adding and editing custom post types, it works perfectly for pages too. After all, pages are a WordPress custom post type!

It's an excellent way to categorize pages because it can do everything you need, including:

• Creating page categories
• Enabling tags for pages in WordPress
• Creating additional custom taxonomies so that you can group pages in multiple ways, as needed. For example, you might want to do this to group pages by extra data such as 'Year', in addition to having page categories.

Once you've created WordPress page categories, I will show you how to list pages based on these categories, tags, and taxonomies. I'll also explain how to allow users to filter by category when viewing a list of posts, and how to restrict access to specific categories.

How to enable categories, tags, and taxonomies for WordPress pages

1. In the WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for 'Easy Post Types and Fields' and install the plugin from Barn2 which appears in the results.
3. Go to the 'Post Types' section in the WordPress Dashboard and click on the 'Other Post Types' tab.
4. Find 'Pages' in the list of post types on your site, and click the 'Taxonomies' button.
5. Now add a singular and plural name for your page categories. These will only be used in the WordPress admin. For the 'Slug', I recommend adding something specific to pages to distinguish it from other types of categories on your WordPress site. Make sure you tick the 'Hierarchical' box - this lets you create sub-categories of pages in a nested parent-child structure.
   

   

6. Now click the 'Add taxonomy' button to finish enabling WordPress page categories.

How to add a tags section for WordPress pages

You can also use the instructions above to enable WordPress page tags. The only difference is that this time, you should not tick the 'Hierarchical' box.

Once you've added a category called something like 'Page tags', the tags section will appear on the right-hand side of the Edit Page screen. It will look exactly like WordPress tags for posts, which are part of WordPress itself.

If you've wondered how to use tags in WordPress, you just click on the tags which appear here or add new ones. You can also manage them centrally using the tags link which appears on the left of the WordPress admin. (This is under the menu for your post type - so in this case, it appears under the 'Pages' link in the Dashboard.)

How to add WordPress taxonomies to pages

Need to create taxonomies to group pages in even more ways? Just follow the instructions for creating WordPress page categories to create additional custom taxonomies for your pages.

Assign them to the correct pages

Once you enable categories, tags, and custom taxonomies for your WordPress pages, all you have to do is to go to the pages tab to assign your pages to them as needed. Click on the Edit button when you hover on the page title, and select the category/tag/taxonomy you would with the content to belong to. You can also use the Quick Edit button which offers a faster way of doing this.

Add as many categories as you want. You can also add any number of tags and WordPress taxonomy terms. There's no limit.

After organizing your content into categories/tags/taxonomies you would want this information displayed centrally on the front end where the users of your website can easily access it.

How to display categories and tags on your website

Since WordPress pages don’t have categories/tags/custom taxonomies by default, your theme probably won’t display them on the front end. This can be easily fixed by installing the Post Table Pro plugin. It's an excellent alternative to archive pages, and much more flexible.

Post Tables Pro lets you:

Step-by-step tutorial - How to list WordPress pages in a searchable, filterable table with categories and tags

1. Upon installation of the plugin, an automatic setup wizard will be launched to assist you in creating your first table. However, if you are already familiar with the plugin or would like to get started immediately, you can create new tables at any time by navigating to Post Tables → Add New.
2. Start by giving your table a name and selecting the post type you wish to display. If you do not yet have a content type, you can create one using the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin.
3. Next, select the posts or pages you would like to include in the table. The available options will vary based on the post type you selected in the previous step. For instance, if you chose a post with custom taxonomy, the relevant taxonomies will be listed for you to select.
4. Customize your table to suit your preferences. You can determine which columns to display and in what order. To add a new column, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add". You can also reorder columns by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column heading.
5. Filters appear as dropdowns above the table, and you can add as many as you like. It is important to note that available filter options will vary depending on the post type selected on the first page.
6. Enable lazy loading to improve the table's performance, even when containing hundreds or thousands of items.
7. Choose how to sort the table. You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction.
8. Finally, the wizard will confirm that you have finished creating your table and provide instructions for inserting it onto your site.

How do you choose the posts that appear in the table?

There are plenty of ways to select which posts to include in your table with Posts Table Pro. You have the flexibility to display posts based on various criteria such as category, tag, post type, status, custom taxonomy term, custom field, or date (year, month, or day).

Moreover, you can choose to hide specific posts from the table by their ID and exclude particular categories. The most commonly used options are readily available in the table builder when you create a new table. If you need more advanced options, they are also accessible in the shortcode. You can find full instructions for all the page shortcode options here.

To display the table on your WordPress site, you can either use the 'Post Table' block in the Gutenberg editor or copy the shortcode from the table builder and paste it anywhere on your site. This gives you the flexibility to place the table on any page regardless of its content.

How to restrict access to specific WordPress page categories or taxonomies

By now, you know how to create WordPress page categories. You also know how to list pages in a searchable table with their new categories.

Finally, I'm going to show you how to hide pages based on categories and taxonomies. This lets you restrict access to specific page categories or taxonomies to a given set of users.

Protecting your categories and taxonomies lets you grant controlled access to your website’s content. The Password Protected Categories plugin allows you to create private areas in your website by hiding categories and taxonomies from users who do not have access.

3 page restriction options

The Password Protected Categories plugin comes with 3 types of protection for your WordPress page categories and taxonomies:

• Password protection - only people who know the password can access the category or its pages.
• Role protection - logged-in users with the correct role can access the category.
• User protection - only specific logged-in users can access the category.

You can use Password Protected Categories to protect new categories or existing ones. Everything on the edit/add new category page remains standard. The only change is that the plugin adds a visibility section where you can assign a password to a page category or custom taxonomy.

Under the visibility section, you will need to select the checkbox for one of the protection options. Either enter a password and/or select the roles and users who will have access. All pages assigned to this category will be protected.

If you have assigned a password to the parent category, you do not need to do the same for the sub-categories. Because sub-categories inherit the password protection of their parent category. Password Protected Categories only lets you protect hierarchical taxonomies. So you would need to use categories or custom taxonomies instead of tags.

How do page categories affect my SEO?

Before we finish, let's talk a little about the impact of page categories on SEO (search engine optimization). Essentially, the advice about this is the same as for optimizing WordPress post categories.

WordPress page categories can have a significant impact on your website's SEO efforts. By using categories effectively, you can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content, which can lead to higher rankings and more traffic.

One important factor to consider when using categories for SEO is the use of the "noindex" tag. This tag can be added to a category page to tell search engines not to index that page. This can be useful if you have a category page that doesn't add any value to your site or could be seen as duplicate content.

Another important factor is the use of permalinks. Permalinks are the permanent URLs for your pages and posts. By default, WordPress uses a format that includes numbers. However, you can change this to include the post or page name. This can be more SEO-friendly. Using descriptive permalinks that include the page category can help search engines understand the content of your page.

Using an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO can also help you optimize your page categories for search engines. Yoast SEO allows you to add meta descriptions, title tags, and other important SEO elements to your category pages. This can help improve your visibility in search results and drive more traffic to your site.

Should I worry about duplicate content when adding page categories?

Finally, it's important to avoid duplicate content when using page categories. Duplicate content can occur when you have multiple pages with the same content, such as when you have multiple pages with the same category. To avoid this, make sure each category page has unique content and is not duplicating content from other pages on your site. This can help ensure that each page is unique and valuable to both users and search engines.

You can always use the canonical URL feature in your SEO plugin to avoid duplicate content issues with page categories. This involves marking which version of a page or category is the most important, so the search engines ignore any duplicates which point to it.

It’s time to organize your WordPress pages

Adding categories and tags to your WordPress pages allows you to organize your content for your users to easily navigate through it. WordPress does not allow you to categorize and tag pages by default. Fortunately, these plugins allow you to do this:

• Easy Post Types and Fields – Enables WordPress page categories, tags and extra custom taxonomies for pages.
• Post Table Pro – Displays pages in a table with columns and filters for your categories and tags; and to list pages by category or tag.
• Password Protected Categories – Restricts access to specific categories and taxonomies.

The end result? A perfectly categorized and displayed set of WordPress pages, which your users will find a pleasure to navigate.

If you struggle with cart abandonment on your WooCommerce store — and which online seller doesn't! — you need WooCommerce Fast Cart, our WooCommerce side cart plugin.

With Barn2's WooCommerce side cart plugin, your customers' carts — along with the typical WooCommerce cart functionalities like adding or removing items, changing quantities, applying coupons, and checking out, among others — move as your customers move across your online store.

With our WooCommerce side cart plugin, as soon as a user adds a product to their cart, a side cart appears, using which users can easily: 

• View the items in their carts
• View the product price(s), shipping costs, subtotal, total, etc.
• Change quantities 
• Delete products
• Apply coupon codes
• Do a one-click checkout
• Check out similar products (if you enable them on the side cart) 
• And continue shopping — you can add a "Continue Shopping" CTA to your side cart; each time a product is added to the cart, the cart gets refreshed automatically.

As the admin, you can have a side cart open automagically as soon as a user clicks the "Add to cart" option anywhere on your shop. Plus, you can set up a floating cart icon that opens the side cart if users close it for any reason. The side cart loads in a flash and remains accessible all the time.

A WooCommerce side cart plugin fixes a key issue with the default WooCommerce cart and checkout workflow

As you would know, WooCommerce provides a Cart and Checkout page. Typically, after adding products to the cart, customers must view the cart page to check their order. Here, they can edit their order, change quantities and remove items. Once happy with the order, they click a button to proceed to the Checkout page. On the checkout they enter their name and email, select a shipping method, enter their address, enter payment information (plus optional billing address) before they click to confirm the order. That's quite a lot of work!

A WooCommerce side cart plugin fixes this. It brings the entire order process onto the Shop page a customer is already viewing. With WooCommerce Fast Cart, your customers never leave your Shop or product pages as their cart is with them right on it.

A WooCommerce side cart plugin also improves your cart value

Another issue with the default WooCommerce cart and checkout process is that it doesn't help you upsell or cross-sell products and increase your cart value. When you add products to the default cart in WooCommerce, you can either direct customers to the cart page to view their items or keep them on the same product page that they're already viewing. Neither of these approaches is ideal:

• Redirecting customers to the cart page makes them less likely to add more products, thus decreasing your average order value.
• Keeping customers on the same product isn't great as they've already added that product! They need to go back to the Shop to add more products, and there's nothing to encourage them to Checkout. The customer loses momentum and is more likely to abandon their purchase.

A WooCommerce side cart plugin fixes this and lets customers keep shopping while having their cart with the checkout options and all right in front of their eyes all the time.

Meet WooCommerce Fast Cart: Our WooCommerce side cart plugin

WooCommerce Fast Cart adds a popup or side cart and/or checkout to your store. WooCommerce Fast Cart makes it easy for customers to review their orders, change quantities, remove items, and redeem discount codes. It works with WooCommerce's powerful product recommendation engine, encouraging customers to spend more by displaying related products based on what is already in the cart.

When the customer is ready, they can proceed to the checkout. This could either be the standard checkout page, or you can actually display the WooCommerce checkout within the popup mini cart.

This fast checkout is quite unique. There are other plugins (although very few that we would recommend) that add a basic side cart to your site, but it's very unusual to display the WooCommerce checkout as a popup. We believe this is an important feature that makes it much quicker and easier to buy products.

You can display the popup cart as either a side cart on the right of the screen or as a larger lightbox at the middle.

Aren't popups in WooCommerce checkout annoying?

I couldn't agree with you more! There's nothing worse than trying to view a web page and being interrupted by a popup that you didn't ask for.

Our WooCommerce side cart plugin is different because it only shows information that the customer is actively interested in. It doesn't nag them to sign up to a newsletter, and it doesn't appear when the customer is trying to leave the page. It simply displays the products that they have chosen to add to the cart, in a convenient side cart that will save them time.

You can customise this WordPress plugin's settings to make the WooCommerce side cart as unobtrusive as you like. You can either have it open automatically when products are added to the cart; or you can display a floating side cart icon so that customers can choose when to open it.

Three WooCommerce side cart use cases

WooCommerce Fast Cart is a very flexible WooCommerce side cart plugin. It has lots of options so that you can configure the side cart to meet your WordPress website's needs.

To show you how diverse the plugin is, here are some examples of different customer journeys that you can create which use WooCommerce side carts. The first example is the most unobtrusive option, and the last one forces customers to complete their purchase as quickly as possible.

Use case 1: Adding an optional WooCommerce side cart as an alternative to the regular WooCommerce cart

This use case provides a user-friendly way for customers to access the carts, while allowing them to access the WooCommerce cart and checkout pages if they choose to do so.

• The customer visits your e-commerce website and adds a product to their cart.
• A subtle yet prominent cart icon appears on the top right or bottom right of their screen, indicating the number of items in the cart. The customer can continue shopping as usual.
• When they are ready, the customer clicks on the cart icon to launch a floating side cart on the right hand side of their screen.
• The customer can use the side mini cart to view and modify their order, and to add recommended products (cross-sells) to the cart. Or if they prefer, they can access the main WooCommerce cart page and review their order there.
• Finally, the customer clicks on the 'Checkout' button in the side cart or on the cart page. This takes them to the standard WooCommerce checkout page to complete their order.

Use case 2: Replacing the default WooCommerce cart and checkout

This use case is slightly more proactive because it opens automatically when the customer adds products to the cart. It also displays a larger 'Added to cart' popup in the center of the page instead of a small side cart, and fully replaces the usual cart and checkout pages.

• The customer visits your e-commerce website and adds a product to their cart.
• An 'Added to cart' popup appears in the center of the page, displaying the cart contents and displaying recommended products that the customer may also be interested in.
• The customer can add the recommended products to the cart, change the quantity, or close the window and continue browsing the shop.
• The 'Added to cart' popup will launch each time they add a product to the cart. When they are ready, they can make any final changes to the cart and click the 'Checkout' button.
• This will open the WooCommerce checkout directly in the popup window. The customer can review their order, enter their details, choose shipping options and make payment directly in the popup.

Use case 3: Selling products individually with one-step direct checkout

This use case is ideal for WooCommerce stores wanting a quick and easy way for customers to buy one product at a time. While it's less good than the other use cases for increasing the average order value, it is excellent for conversions because it's so fast.

• The customer visits your shop and adds a product to their cart.
• Immediately, the WooCommerce checkout opens as a popup - either as a side cart on the right hand side of the page, or as a larger floating cart in the center.
• The customer enters their details, selects shipping options, pays and completes their order - directly in the popup checkout.

Now that we’ve seen how WooCommerce Fast Cart can be used, let’s look at how you can set it up and create your very own WooCommerce side cart!

How to create a WooCommerce side cart using WooCommerce Fast Cart

Installing the plugin: 

• Download your plugin zip file and copy your license key from your order confirmation page  
• Activate the plugin using your license key by navigating to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Fast cart

Customise your settings:

Once your plugin is activated, you can customise the settings according to your requirements. Customisations include:

• Setting where the floating cart appears - on the right hand side or at the center
• Whether the cart automatically appears upon adding to cart or is displayed an option
• Checkout directly from the cart or checkout directly after adding to cart
• Cart elements and layout like the product image, pricing, quantities, coupon codes, shipping details, order total amount, recommended products, etc.
• Designing - the font, colors, buttons, cart icon display, background and overall layout of your WooCommerce side cart

Offering a better shopping experience with a WooCommerce side cart

As you have seen, WooCommerce Fast Cart speeds up the final stages of the buying process. Specifically, it jumps in after customers start adding products to their order.

To optimize the full customer journey and maximize conversions, you can use this WooCommerce side cart plugin alongside our other plugins to make it easier to find and organise your products.

Here are some WordPress plugins that work great with WooCommerce Fast Cart:

WooCommerce Quick View Pro

You can lose out if customers are forced to visit a separate page for each product. Instead, let them view extra product details and add to the cart from a lightbox.

Our Quick View Pro integrates directly with WooCommerce Fast Cart. When you use the plugins together, the related products in the side cart will include 'Quick View' buttons. This lets customers learn more about the related products and choose options, without closing the WooCommerce side cart.

WooCommerce Product Table

WooCommerce Product Table lists products in a super-quick order form. It comes with variation dropdowns, filters, quantity pickers, images and multi-select checkboxes.

Customers can add multiple products to the cart at once, before completing their purchase with the WooCommerce side cart.

WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering

Food and takeaway stores are great examples of sites that would benefit from quick one-page ordering. Instead of wasting customers' time with separate pages for each item, WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering provides a much faster ordering experience.

Customers select their items, choose options or toppings, and add to the order from one single page. They can complete their purchase using WooCommerce Fast Cart itself.

WooCommerce Bulk Variations

WooCommerce Bulk Variations is ideal for any customers wanting to buy multiple variations of the same product at once. Instead of choosing a variation and adding them one at a time, they enter a quantity for each and add them all in one go!

After adding the variations in bulk, they can view related products and complete their purchase in the WooCommerce side cart.

Where can I get WooCommerce Fast Cart?

WooCommerce Fast Cart, our WooCommerce side cart plugin, is available as a standalone WooCommerce side cart plugin or as part of our WooCommerce Bundle.

Like all our other plugins, even WooCommerce Fast Cart comes with:

• In-depth documentation and tutorials.
• Export support from our friendly team.
• Full 30-day money back guarantee.

Categories are the primary way to structure products in a WooCommerce store. They provide a quick and easy route for customers to navigate your online shop and quickly find products they're interested in. But despite this, most WooCommerce sites are missing a product category dropdown. It's a shame, as this is a fantastic opportunity to let shoppers filter by category.

Fortunately, there are two easy ways to add WooCommerce category filters to your store. Keep reading to find out which is best for you.

Solution 1: Create filter widgets with WooCommerce product category dropdowns

The other option is to use a Woo filter plugin to add a category dropdown option. The filter widgets that come with WooCommerce itself only let you filter by attribute, price, or average rating - but not category.

To add a category dropdown filter widget, you'll need to install the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin. This adds advanced-level category filters to your store.

For example, you can:

• Add WooCommerce category dropdown filter widgets to the left or right sidebar.
• Display all of these options above your shop instead of in the sidebar.
• Allow customers to filter by category, tag, attribute, and even custom taxonomies - all at once.
• Choose whether to list categories as drop downs, checkboxes, clickable images, and more:

You can also use it to create WooCommerce step filter dropdowns. With these, the customer selects a parent category and then an additional category filter dropdown appears listing the child categories. When they select these, the grandchild categories appear. And so it continues, for as deep as your category structure goes:

As you can see, WooCommerce Product Filters is an incredibly versatile way to add category filters to your store. It comes with category filter dropdowns, and much more too.

Solution 2: Create product tables with WooCommerce category dropdown filters

The first solution involves using the WooCommerce Product Filters WordPress plugin to add category filters as dropdowns or any other style. However, it doesn't actually change the layout of your store. That's where the WooCommerce Product Table plugin comes in.

WooCommerce Product Table adds category filter dropdowns and also transforms your store's layout. It does this by creating a list view of your products.

Listing products in a table instantly makes your store easier to navigate. The table comes complete with instant AJAX search box and various filtering options including - you guessed it! - category dropdown lists. It's the perfect way to display WooCommerce categories and products in a dropdown list.

Customers can view all products in the table and quickly select a category or sub-category from the dropdown. This instantly filters the list of products by category.

Here are all the different types of product category filter that come with WooCommerce Product Table:

Category filter dropdown above the table

This is the most obviously way to add a drop down category option in WooCommerce. The list of categories is hierarchical, perfectly reflecting the structure of your store. The sub-categories (and sub-sub-categories, etc.) are automatically nested/indented to show the category relationships.

Shoppers simply open the categories dropdown and select a category. The list of products updates instantly to display products from that category.

To clear the category selection, the shopper simply clicks the reset link to view all products.

Filter by clicking on a category in the table

You can choose which columns to include in your product tables. If you choose to include a 'categories' column, then this will list each product's categories within the table. Customers can click on these to instantly filter by a specific category. Or if you prefer, you can disable 'search on click' so that clicking on a category will load the category archive page.

Add to to any page, or to your main shop page

The easiest way to create product tables with category dropdowns is to add a shortcode - [product_table] - to any page on your WordPress site. You can use the shortcode like this to list all products. Alternatively, you can edit the shortcode to list specific products only.

You can also add them to your main shop page, complete with product category dropdown. That way, customers can visit the shop homepage (or any product archive page) and use the category filter there. This option is slightly more technical and you can find the instructions here.

You may also like: 2 ways to display a WooCommerce product variations dropdown to shop & category pages.

Can I use both solutions together to add multiple category dropdowns?

Absolutely! The benefit of using both types of category filter dropdown is that different customers navigate websites in different ways.

Some will choose to select a category from a dropdown above the list of products. Others will click on a category to see other products from the same category. Other shoppers prefer to use sidebar widgets to perform multiple filters at once.

By giving customers a choice, you can make it even easier for them. And happy customers means happy store owners - everyone wins!

WordPress comes with some fantastic layouts for listing blog posts, such as the main blog page and category archives. But what if you want to list WordPress posts elsewhere on your website?

Maybe you want to list posts from a specific category? Perhaps you want to list WordPress posts by author, tag, or something else. Maybe you want to list other types of WordPress content such as pages or custom post types. Well, you've come to the right place!

I'm going to show you how to use Posts Table Pro to list blog posts or other information in a flexible table layout. This WordPress post list plugin lets you choose which columns to include in the table. You can also choose which posts to list based on their category, tag, date, author and more. And even better - it all happens automatically. It's time to stop listing posts manually by hand! 

Case study #1 - How we listed tutorials on our own website

First off, I'll tell you that I created this post to 'scratch my own itch'. Previously, I've been wasting time by manually listing the tutorials for each of our WordPress plugins in our knowledge base. Every time I'd publish a post about how to use one of our plugins, I'd edit the relevant article in the knowledge base and manually add it to the list. Lots of people do this, but it was particularly stupid for me because here at Barn2, we have a WordPress post list plugin to fix exactly this problem!

As a result, I spent about 10 minutes today using Posts Table Pro to replace the manual lists of posts in 5 articles from our knowledge base. It literally only took 10 minutes to list WordPress posts in 5 separate tables because Posts Table Pro does it all for you.

See it in action on our list of Posts Table Pro tutorials here!

Below, I will share exactly how I did. Then you can put it into practice and use the same method to list WordPress posts on your own website based on their category, tag, or whatever you like.

But first I'll share another case study of how one our plugin customers achieved the same on their own website.

Case study #2 - Journey with Omraam blog post index

Journey with Omraam is a global community that continues to spread the teachings of the spiritual master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov.

The website is regularly updated with fresh content. All posts have been added to the Search All Posts page as a list of WordPress posts, and there are many, many posts – more than 700. So an easy way to sort through the list of posts was essential, that's exactly why our WordPress post list plugin powers the page.

Each and every blog post is listed in the table along with its title, first line of the post, author and date it was published. Visitors can browse the content in three ways. They can sort the table by the column headers. They could filter the list by selecting a category. Or, they can use the keyword search box. Either way will quickly help them find what they're looking for.

Read on to find out how you, too, can list WordPress posts on your website.

Introducing Posts Table Pro - a plugin to list WordPress posts, pages & other content

As you can see, there are lots of ways to display posts using different content views - whether this is a post grid or list for WordPress. The Posts Table Pro plugin creates a grid-based table layout, with each post listed as a separate row in the table. This builds on the content views that come with WordPress and your theme.

Posts Table Pro lets you list WordPress posts or other content types such as normal pages or any custom post type. You can use it to list literally any post type on your website, including portfolios, documents, products, events, articles, news, tutorials, etc.

Once you've decided what type of content to list using this WordPress plugin, there are lots of ways to choose what type of WordPress posts to display. Here's a summary of them all. Afterwards, I'll tell you how to set it up.

List all posts in a table

At its very simplest, you can use Posts Table Pro to list all posts in a table layout. The optional lazy load setting ensures fast load times, even if you're listing hundreds or many thousands of posts.

You can either list the post names only, in a one-column table. Alternatively, you can add extra columns to show information such as content, excerpt, featured image, author, or date.

List posts by category

You can list WordPress posts by category, listing content from one or more specific categories. Simply enter the name or ID of the category you wish to list the posts from.

This is a great option if you want to list posts from a particular category outside of the category archive pages that come with WordPress itself. Check out our separate article on how to list category posts.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

Display posts with a specific tag

As well as category, you can list WordPress posts by tag. Create a table containing posts that are tagged with 1 or more specific terms.

For example, if you have a WordPress recipe blog for foodies, then you can create tables listing posts that are tagged with 'healthy' or 'vegan'.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

List WordPress posts by author

It's also possible to list WP posts by author - for example, if you want to create different lists of posts based on the user who created them. This is useful if you want to list posts by a specific author outside of the built-in author archive pages.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

Create a date-based list of posts by month, year or day

List WP posts by month, year, day, or any combination of these date options. This adds more flexibility than simply using the date archives that come with WordPress itself.

You don't just have to list all your posts in reverse date order. Instead, you can create separate pages listing posts from a specific day or month. This is ideal for blogs that post regularly, WordPress newspaper websites, and similar sites.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

List WP posts by ID

For even more fine-grained control, the plugin lets you list pages or posts based on their specific database ID. For example, this might be useful if you want to manually add a list of related posts to a WordPress blog post. Use the ID of each post to hand pick which related posts to include in the table, and add them anywhere within your post.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

List posts by custom field or taxonomy

If that's not enough, you can also use custom fields or a custom taxonomy to list posts in even more weird and wonderful ways!

Custom fields and taxonomies are a wonderful way of extending the information that you store about your WordPress posts and other content. If you feel the fields that come with WordPress itself don't quite your needs, just use a free plugin to create custom fields and/or taxonomies. You can then use the Posts Table Pro plugin to list posts based on specific data.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

List posts, pages or any custom post type

Posts Table Pro can list any type of post in WordPress, including custom post types. This is useful if you need to list something other than blog posts. For example, you might be creating lists of events, documents, portfolio projects, products, or something else.

We've got a separate tutorial on how to list WordPress custom post types in a table.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

Exclude posts from the list by ID or category

There are also exclude and exclude category options, which are handy if you need to exclude specific posts from the list. I'm always surprised at how often I list posts and then realise that there are a couple that I want to exclude. This is sometimes easier than choosing which posts to include, depending on how many you want to hide.

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

List posts anywhere in WordPress

You can choose whether to list WordPress posts on a page, in a blog post, or to automatically use the table layout in your category archive template or in the WordPress search results page. This makes Posts Table Pro incredibly flexible. You simply add a shortcode anywhere on your site, edit it to state what you want to include, and it will appear automatically on the front end. 

READ INSTRUCTIONS →

What else can it do?

As well as providing flexibility in which WordPress posts or other content to list, the plugin lets you choose which columns to include in the post list table.

Some people use Posts Table Pro to create a very simple list of WordPress posts. If this is what you want, then you can create a table that just has a title column listing the post name. Others use it to add extra information, which helps to encourage people to click on the posts and read more. For example, you can list posts with their featured image, plus other post data such as title, content, excerpt, author, date, etc. If you've added custom fields or taxonomies to your WordPress post list then you can include those too.

Posts Table Pro also makes it easier for people to find posts based on data such as category, tag or author. Each column in the table is sortable, and you can add extra controls such as search box and filters. You can allow customers to filter by post tag, category, or any custom taxonomies you've created such as Topic or Year.

You can also control the order in which posts are listed. For example, you can list WordPress posts alphabetically or in date order. This is much more flexible than the default post list on the main blog page.

Feel free to check out the full list of plugin options here. I've just focussed on the main ones for creating a WordPress posts list.

How to list WordPress posts on a page with Posts Table Pro

To learn how to create a WordPress post list table for your own website, either watch this video tutorial or read the written instructions below:

1. Before you start, you should have a WordPress website already set up with various posts that you want to list.
2. Get the Posts Table Pro plugin and install it on your website.
3. Download the zip file from the link in your order confirmation email and upload it to your WordPress admin by going to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, then click Activate. The Posts Table Pro setup wizard will then initiate automatically.
4. Upon installation, the automatic setup wizard will guide you in creating your first table or you can create new tables anytime via Post Tables → Add New.
5. Give your table a name and select the post type to display.
6. Select the posts or pages to include in the table, and customize columns and order by dragging and dropping or adding new columns. For instance, you can add columns for categories, tags, post dates, and authors.
7. Add filters. You can add as many as you like. Filters will appear as a dropdown above your table.
8. Enable lazy loading for better performance with large tables.
9. Next, choose the default sorting option and direction.
10. Next, go to the page where you want to list WordPress posts, pages, or other content. (Note: This can be an existing page or a new page. It doesn't matter if the page uses the standard WordPress editor or a page builder plugin such as Visual Composer. If you don't want to list posts on a page, you can use a post or widget instead.)
11. After completing the table using Post Table Pro, you can display it on your WordPress site by using the 'Post Table' block in the Gutenberg editor or copying the shortcode from the table builder and pasting it anywhere on your site. This offers you the flexibility to place the table on any page.

And this is how my WordPress post list table looks on the front end:

Take action: List WordPress posts with Post Table Pro today 🚀

By now, you should have all the information you need to start automatically listing posts and pages on your own website. Whether you want to list posts by category, author, date, or anything else, you can do it with Posts Table Pro.

Get Posts Table Pro today and stop wasting time writing manual lists straight away!

Lots of website owners need index pages on their WordPress site, or a blog post index listing articles in alphabetical order. Surprisingly, there is no good WordPress index plugin available for listing your website content. Today, I'll show you how to use the Posts Table Pro WordPress table plugin to create index pages, posts, or even custom post types.

Using the Post Table Pro WordPress table plugin is a great solution if you're looking for a way to organize your WordPress site. It also makes it easier for visitors to find the content they need. With this plugin, you can create a searchable and sortable index that lists all your web pages or blog posts.

Your WordPress index plugin or WP index can be customized to display only page/post names or additional information by adding extra columns. Your finished WordPress index plugin pages will look something like this:

We'll take a closer look at how to use Posts Table Pro, and how you can customize it to fit your specific needs. We'll cover everything from creating a WordPress index and adding custom post types to configuring filters and making it searchable. If you're a blogger, freelancer, or business owner, read on to learn how to use Posts Table Pro to create a powerful and user-friendly index WordPress site.

See a WordPress site index in action on our demo page.

What makes a good WordPress index plugin?

First, let's look at what an index actually is. Then we can think about the best way to create a WordPress index.

The definition of an index is:

1. "(in a nonfiction book, monograph, etc.) a more or less detailed alphabetical listing of names, places, and topics along with the numbers of the pages on which they are mentioned or discussed, usually included in or constituting the back matter.
2. a sequential arrangement of material, especially in alphabetical or numerical order."

A WordPress site index plugin should list content such as pages, posts, or other content types in an alphabetical listing. Moreover, the plugin should let you include other material from the site contents in the index, such as tags, categories, authors, or even custom fields and taxonomy terms.

A WordPress index plugin can list any content type alphabetically. If you store events or date-based articles in WordPress, the plugin can also list content by date.

You may also like: How to create an alphabetical index with a WordPress A-Z plugin.

Posts Table Pro - The perfect WordPress index plugin

When it comes to finding a WordPress index plugin, you may find that the options are limited. A quick Google search or any other search engine will reveal that there aren't many plugins available to choose from, which can be frustrating.

Even more frustrating is that many of the available options don't really provide the functionality you'd expect from an index plugin. Some of the plugins available focus more on displaying site contents in a grid layout with thumbnail images, rather than creating a list layout as you would expect from an index. Other plugins may be outdated, with no updates in years, which can be a major warning sign when it comes to compatibility with the latest WordPress versions.

Fortunately, with Posts Table Pro, you can create an index that lists your website pages or blog posts in a clear and organized way, with the added ability to include custom post types. It has all the features you'd expect from an index plugin:

• 

  Create an index of WordPress pages, blog posts, or any custom post type (e.g. e-commerce products, events, documents, portfolio case studies, testimonials, etc.).

• The index items are listed in a table layout with whichever columns of information you choose to include.
• There are multiple sorting options, including alphabetical or date-based sorting.
• You can either index all your WordPress site content, or just create an index for a specific post type, category, tag, or similar.
• Users can search, sort, and filter the index to find the content they're looking for.

Get Posts Table Pro

To better understand how the WordPress index plugin works, let's take a look at a real-life case study. Imagine you have a website with a large amount of content, including blog posts, products, and other custom post types. As your content library grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for your visitors to find what they're looking for.

In addition to creating an index of blog posts and pages, you can also use this plugin to list other custom post types on your website. For example, if you have a WooCommerce store, you can use Posts Table Pro to create a searchable index of your products.

Other potential use cases for a WordPress index plugin include creating an index of resources such as eBooks or whitepapers or creating a directory of staff or team members. Check out other use cases and case studies below. Once you've identified the use case that best fits your website, you can use Posts Table Pro to create a customizable index page with various display options. You can even add filters to the index, such as categories or tags.

Case study - Index of blog posts for Journey With Omraam

Journey with Omraam wanted to create a WordPress index plugin page listing all their site's blog posts. You can see this on their 'Search All Posts' page.

The blog posts are listed in a table layout with columns for the post title, content, post date, author, and categories. Users can quickly find a specific article by using the keyword search box or clicking on a category to filter the index for that category. They can then click on the title to read the full post.

Use case - WordPress site table of contents

Most WordPress table of contents plugins don't actually list all the pages from your website, which is what you'd expect. Instead, they create an internal table of contents to aid navigation within an individual post. They're a good way to break up long articles because they add jump links to the various sections of the post. However, they're not used for creating an index listing all your site's pages!

You can use Posts Table Pro to list all the pages on your WordPress site in an alphabetical table of contents or index. Choose your columns, add any extras such as a search box or dropdown filters, and it's an ideal way to help people navigate your website. It's far better than an HTML sitemap plugin because there are extra features such as search and filters, plus you can add extra data about each page instead of just the title.

Next, we'll get to the practical part of this beginners' tutorial. I'll show you exactly how to set up Posts Table Pro as the best WordPress index plugin.

How to create an index of WordPress posts, pages, or custom posts

First, purchase the Posts Table Pro, you will receive a confirmation email containing a download link and a license key. Download the plugin from the link provided in the email and save the zip file to your computer.

To install the plugin on your WordPress site, navigate to the Plugins section in your WordPress admin panel, click on "Add New", and then choose the "Upload Plugin" option. Select the zip file containing the plugin, and click on "Activate" once the installation is complete. Once the plugin is activated, a setup wizard will appear, which will take you through a step-by-step process to create your first table. You can also create new tables any time by navigating to Post Tables → Add New.

Configuring your WordPress site index

Ok, so far you've learned how to use a WordPress index plugin to create index listing pages, posts, or custom post types. Next, I'll talk you through the steps to configure your index.

Choose which columns to include in the index table

To create a table in WordPress, first, give your table a name for internal use that will appear in the list of tables in the WordPress admin. Then, choose the post type you want to display. In this case, choose 'pages'. Next, select which pages you want to include in your index.

To customize the columns of your index in WordPress, you can select which columns to add and in what order. Since we're creating an index for your pages, you may want to include details such as post id, title, content, excerpt, image, date, author, categories, tags, status, or any custom field.

To add a column, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add." The added columns will appear in the list of columns above, and you can rearrange them by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column title. You can also rename a column by clicking the pencil icon, or hide the column name completely using the toggle. If you want to remove a column, simply click the X icon next to it.

Add filters to the index page

To refine user selections in your index, you can add filters that cater to your target audience. Consider what your visitors would find most useful. For instance, you may require filters by author, category, and date.

Filters appear as dropdown menus above the table and you can add as many as you need!

How to sort your WordPress index in numerical order

Posts Table Pro doesn't have the option to index site content in number order. However, you can do this by adding the numbers in a format that will also make sense in alphabetical order.

Let's assume that you want to create a numerical WordPress index content based on a column containing numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, 22, and 29. Added in a single-digit format, the numbers will be listed wrongly as 1, 10, 11, 2, 22, 29, and 5. That's because they're in alphabetical order.

Sorting a WordPress index in date order

You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction for your index. This provides you with greater control over the order in which your index is displayed to your users.

Sorting options help to organize data into a logical sequence that is easy for users to understand. You can sort data in ascending or descending order, depending on your preference. By selecting the default sorting option, you can decide which column to sort the table data by, and how it should be sorted.

Display your index page

After you have finished creating your table with the Post Table Pro plugin, the setup wizard will verify that you have completed it and offer guidance on how to insert the table onto your WordPress site. You can either use the "Post Table" block in the Gutenberg editor or simply copy the shortcode from the table builder and paste it wherever you wish on your site. This gives you the flexibility to place the table on any page, regardless of its content.

Create a WooCommerce index listing E-commerce products

Posts Table Pro works and lets you create a product WordPress index page for practically all WordPress e-commerce plugins. This includes Easy Digital Downloads, WP eCommerce, and others. That's because all these e-commerce plugins store their products as a custom new post type.

Follow the above step-by-step tutorial to create an index of products for any WordPress E-commerce plugin.

You may also like: Learn how to use Posts Table Pro to list Easy Digital Downloads products.

It also works for WooCommerce. However, if you need an index WordPress of WooCommerce products then you're better off with our other WordPress index page plugin, WooCommerce Product Table.

The instructions for creating an index WordPress with WooCommerce Product Table are very similar to Posts Table Pro. The difference is that it has extra support for WooCommerce, such as add-to-cart buttons and reviews. So I'd recommend that for a WooCommerce index plugin instead.

WOOCOMMERCE PRODUCT TABLE

Next steps

Posts Table Pro can help you create index pages for your website content easily. Unlike other dedicated index plugins, it offers greater flexibility, customization, and sophistication. This plugin lists custom post types, allowing you to create a tailored content index for your site.

If you're looking to improve your user experience and speed up your content indexing process. It also offers your visitors a more organized and structured way to navigate through your site, Posts Table Pro is the ideal solution for you. So why wait? Get it today and start creating index pages of your own website content.

Struggling with how to list category posts on your WordPress site?

Sometimes you need a list of posts in one specific category - you might want to:

• Showcase a particular author's work
• Display posts based on a key topic for your users
• Ensure greater visibility for the full range of content on your site (as opposed to just recent posts), boosting your content's rankings and therefore your whole site's SEO.

You could always just link to a category’s archive page, but that’s often not a workable solution if:

• You're looking to list category posts inside another piece of content (like a post or page)
• Do you prefer a simple list or table view to the full category archive layout in your theme
• You want pinpoint control over the exact information displays for each post in your list

Instead, you might be looking for something like this:

Or perhaps a simple list of product names, like this:

You can find some plugins that give you a shortcode to list category posts. However, these plugins can often fall short when it comes to filtering which posts to display, choosing what content to display in the list (beyond a post's title), and allowing your visitors to interact with your list of posts.

Posts Table Pro, on the other hand, lets you list WordPress posts from a specific category (or categories) and includes far more in-depth functionality:

• Filter the list to only include or exclude specific posts from the category. You can even filter by custom fields or taxonomies for pinpoint control of what shows up.
• Add additional columns to display extra information like a post's author, publish date, or even custom fields and taxonomies.
• Optionally, give your visitors controls to filter, sort, or search your list of posts. AJAX search even allows visitors to view search results without a page reload.

Beyond that, Posts Table Pro can also help you list custom post types from a specific category or custom taxonomy.

In this article, you'll learn how to list category posts like the example above using Posts Table Pro.

For the tutorial, I'm going to create a list of posts that pulls from the Reviews category on my demo site and includes the review author, the publish date, and the post's featured image.

How to list category posts with the Posts Table Pro WordPress plugin

If you're looking for an easy way to display or list content from your WordPress website in a searchable and sortable table, Posts Table Pro is the perfect solution for you. Here's how you can install it:

• Once you've purchased Posts Table Pro, you'll receive a confirmation email containing your license key and a download link to the plugin. If you don't receive this email, please submit a support request.
• Download the plugin from the link provided in your order confirmation email. This will save a zip file to your computer.
• In your WordPress admin panel, navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
• Select the posts-table-pro.zip file you just downloaded by clicking Choose File.
• After the file uploads, click Activate.
• Then, the Posts Table Pro setup wizard will automatically open and prompt you to enter your license key.

Tip: This help article has a full list of Posts Table Pro shortcode options.

Step 1: Creating Tables with Posts Table Pro

When you install the Posts Table Pro plugin, a setup wizard will automatically appear to help you create your first table. You can also create new tables anytime you want by going to Post Tables → Add New. Follow the next steps to learn how to create tables using Posts Table Pro.

After completing this section, the list looks like this:

Step 2: Name and post type

To create a table using Posts Table Pro, start by giving it an internal name that will appear in the WordPress admin list of tables. Next, select the post type that you want to display. If you do not have a content type, create one quickly using the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin. Just click on the "Create a new post type" link to get started.

Step 3: Select the type of content to show on your table

When adding posts or pages to your table, you can choose from posts, pages, and custom post types on the page. The options available will depend on the post type you selected in the previous step. If your post type has custom taxonomies, they will also be displayed for you to choose from.

Step 4: Customize columns

To modify the columns in your table, you can choose which columns to exhibit and arrange them in any order you prefer.

Posts Table Pro lets you display columns for:

• Post ID
• Title
• Content
• Excerpt
• Thumbnail Image
• Date
• Author
• Categories
• Tags
• Any custom field
• Any custom taxonomy

You can customize a column by selecting the column type from the dropdown menu and tapping 'Add'. The appended columns will emerge in the list of columns above, and you can rearrange them by dragging and dropping the sorting icon on the left or the column title. Furthermore, you can click the pencil icon to alter the column name or use the toggle to conceal the column name entirely. If you intend to delete a column, simply click the X icon adjacent to it.

Here's what it's going to look like when view on the front end:

Step 5: Filter options

You can enhance the user experience of your table by including filters that allow them to refine their choices. Consider what your target audience would consider the most beneficial. For instance, on a book review website, visitors would presumably like to filter by author and genre.

Filters will appear as dropdown menus above the table, and you can add as many as you need. The available filter alternatives will differ based on the post type chosen on the first page. For example, typical blog posts may have filters for categories and tags, as well as any added custom taxonomies.

However, other post types may not have built-in categories and tags, and consequently, they will only present the custom taxonomies included in them, which can be accomplished using the Easy Post Types plugin.

Step 6: Choose how to sort the table

You can customize the sorting options for your table by choosing the default sorting option and the sort direction. This allows you to control the order in which the table is displayed to your users.

You can sort by:

• Post ID
• Title
• Menu order
• Publish date
• Slug
• Last modified date
• Author
• Comment count
• Post type
• Random

Here's what it's going to look like (notice that the order has changed since the last example):

Step 7: (Optional) Configure which filters to give users access to

Posts Table Pro gives you the option to:

• Add a drop-down filter for specific data. For example, if you display tags you could let visitors choose specific tags from a drop-down to further refine your list of category posts. To control this, you use the filters parameter.
• Hide the search box. By default, Posts Table Pro displays a search box. To move or disable the search box, you use the search_box parameter.
• Hide the pagination options. By default, Posts Table Pro displays a drop-down that lets visitors choose how many posts to list. To move or disable the drop-down, you use the page_length parameter.

Step 8: (Optional) Exclude individual posts from your list

If you want to exclude specific posts in the selected category from the list, the exclude parameter lets you remove individual posts by their post ID.

To find a post's ID, look at the URL when you're editing a post:

Step 9: (Optional) Choose the number of posts to display

You can choose how many items are listed on each page of the table, as well as the total number of posts in the table. The rows_per_page option controls how many rows display on each page of results in the table, and the post_limit option controls the maximum number of posts displayed in your table.

Final Step: Insert your shortcode where you want your list to display

After finishing creating your table using the Post Table Pro plugin, the setup wizard will tell you that you're done and show you how to add the table to your WordPress website.

• You can use the "Post Table" block in the Gutenberg editor or
• Copy the shortcode from the table builder and paste it on any page on your website, allowing you to put the table anywhere you like, regardless of the page's content.

Taking your list of posts even further

Depending on your needs, you can get more creative with the list category posts WordPress plugin. Some helpful advanced tips you can implement are:

• Use custom fields to display a Buy Now button in your list (helpful for listing review posts or particular categories of products).
• Display custom post types to create a category list of events, audio files, podcast episodes, documents, staff members, and more.
• Upgrade the default WordPress Posts Archive sidebar widget to show posts in the tabular archive layout by adding the Posts Table Pro shortcode directly to a custom 'archive.php' template.
• Add lazy loading for long lists.
• Add a fallback message for when there aren't any posts to display for a given category name.

And that’s all you need to get started with the best list category posts plugin for WordPress. Any other questions? Leave a comment and we’ll try to help out! We're always happy to get Posts Table Pro running on your site.

Let me guess: You've been searching for a WordPress A-Z plugin but none of them do exactly what you want them to do. Now, you need to create an alphabetical listing of your WordPress content but maybe you're not sure how to get started.

Don't worry - we've got you covered.

In this post, I'll show you how to use the Posts Table Pro plugin to create a WordPress alphabetical index from any type of content on your site - posts, pages, custom post types... you name it! You can use this to create A-Z listings, with posts listed by letter. Or maybe a WordPress glossary, where people can click on the A-Z letters or numbers to view the listings under each one.

Let's get started so you can have a working solution to your problem as soon as possible!

How to create a WordPress alphabetical index or list

To demonstrate how to create a WordPress alphabetical index, I’m going to use a real-life example of creating an A-Z movie index where visitors can click on any letter to jump straight to movies with names that start with that letter.

You can see an example of the end result below:

The process that I show you can work for anything, though. This means you'll be able to adapt this same basic approach to anything from regular WordPress posts to custom post types to numerical indexes and even WooCommerce products.

Posts Table Pro - the perfect WordPress A-Z plugin

While there are some simple WordPress A-Z plugins, most of them force you into using a single preset layout and only apply to regular WordPress posts.

On the other hand, by using Posts Table Pro, you’ll be able to:

• Create an A-Z index for regular posts, pages, or custom post types
• Manipulate your WordPress alphabetical index to show only the exact information that you want
• Include data from custom fields in your index

You can see a live example of the types of indexes that Posts Table Pro can help you create on this demo page.

Here’s everything you need to create your WordPress alphabetical index

• Posts Table Pro plugin (paid)
• Easy Post Types and Fields (free), to create custom taxonomy (for alphabetization) and/or custom post type

And if your theme doesn't already have functionality for tabs or toggles, you'll also need:

• Shortcodes Ultimate plugin (free), optional, but makes it easy to create clickable tabs to divide your index by the letters in the alphabet.

The entire process in a nutshell

I’m going to break down every single step in more detail. But before I do that, I want to give you a high-level look at the process so that you have an idea of where this article is going.

To create a WordPress alphabetical list you’ll:

1. Decide between listing regular posts, and pages, or using a custom post type
2. Create a custom taxonomy that you’ll automatically add the first letter of the post using a code snippet (for easy alphabetization) - or you can set the letters manually if you don't want to edit any code
3. Create a list of content for each letter using the Posts Table Pro shortcode
4. Display those lists in a tabbed interface using Shortcodes Ultimate (or something similar)

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Decide what content you want to index

Posts Table Pro lets you index and alphabetize content from:

• Posts
• Pages
• Custom post types

So if you haven’t already, it helps to think of the best way to store the content that you want to index.

• Posts - typically, people use the default posts to store blog posts. So if you want to create an alphabetical index to list WordPress blog posts, this is what you want.
• Pages - pages are generally more for static content. You can create an index of your pages, but for more specialized content, you'll probably want a custom post type instead.
• Custom Post Type - custom post types are flexible and good for storing non-standard content, like a movie entry, staff member, and more.

For this demo, I’m going to use a custom post type to store the movie entries. But if you want to use regular posts, instead, it’s as simple as removing one tiny little phrase later on in the article (I’ll explain this when we get there!).

Step 2: Create a custom post type using Easy Post Types and Fields

If you’re going to use regular WordPress posts instead of a custom post type, you can click here to skip straight to the next step.

To create your custom post type, install and activate the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin. Then:

Go to  Post Type → Manage in your WordPress dashboard. Click Add New to launch the wizard.

First, enter the Singular and plural names for your post type. For this example, “Movie Review” and “Movie Reviews”. But again, you can adapt this to anything - “Staff Member”, “Artist”, or “Document”.

Select the type of information you wish to display and click Create.

And you are done! You should see your new custom post type show up in the WordPress sidebar.

I’ll cover some neat enhancements - like adding custom fields - later on. But for now, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Further reading: How to create custom post types in WordPress (step-by-step)

Step 3: Create a custom taxonomy

In order to index content alphabetically, you need to create a taxonomy for Posts Table Pro to filter content based on.

Essentially, you create the Alphabetical Letter taxonomy and assign each post a taxonomy for the first letter in the post's title (don’t worry - I’ll show you a way to do this programmatically so that you don’t need to manually set the taxonomy for every content item).

For my movie example:

• “Eat Pray Love” would get “E”
• “Conspiracy Theory” would get “C”
• And so on...

Here’s how to create the necessary taxonomy:

If you skipped here from Step 1, you’ll need to install and activate Easy Post Types and Fields plugin before you continue.

1. Go to Post Type → Manage.
2. Click on the taxonomies button for the post type you wish to customize (in our example, it would be Movie Reviews).
3. On the Manage Taxonomies page, click on the Add New button.
4. Enter the singular and plural names for your new taxonomy. For our purpose, it would be Alphabetical Letters. The actual name can be anything but make sure the slug is easy to remember.
5. Make sure the Hierarchical checkbox is unchecked as there will only be 26 letters of the alphabet and no need to create sub-taxonomies.

After making those changes, make sure to click Add taxonomy button.

Step 4: Add content using the custom taxonomy

Now, if you go to add new content using regular posts or your chosen custom post type, you should see the new Alphabetical Letters taxonomy.

Add your content, making sure to add the appropriate letter to the Alphabetical Letters taxonomy for each piece of content.

How to add the taxonomy programmatically

For small amounts of content, it’s fine to add the taxonomy manually. But if you’re dealing with large amounts of content, you might prefer a method that doesn’t require you to manually input the taxonomy every single time.

Thankfully, you can do that using some basic code. Essentially, this code snippet will automatically chop off the first letter of any piece of content and add it as a taxonomy - no manual input required!

While you’ll need a tiny bit of PHP knowledge to get this done, it’s nothing too complex. Here’s the code I used for my example (credit to Kathy Is Awesome for this snippet):

Note - assisting with code snippets is outside of our plugin support. If you're not comfortable editing code yourself, we recommend using Codeable to find a developer who can do this for you.

/* When the post is saved, saves our custom data */
function kia_save_first_letter( $post_id ) {
 // verify if this is an auto save routine.
 // If it is our form has not been submitted, so we don't want to do anything
 if ( defined( 'DOING_AUTOSAVE' ) && DOING_AUTOSAVE )
 return $post_id;

//check location (only run for posts)
 $limitPostTypes = array('post');
 if (!in_array($_POST['post_type'], $limitPostTypes)) 
 return $post_id;

// Check permissions
 if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_post', $post_id ) )
 return $post_id;

// OK, we're authenticated: we need to find and save the data
 $taxonomy = 'glossary';

//set term as first letter of post title, lower case
 wp_set_post_terms( $post_id, strtolower(substr($_POST['post_title'], 0, 1)), $taxonomy );

//delete the transient that is storing the alphabet letters
 delete_transient( 'kia_archive_alphabet');
}
add_action( 'save_post', 'kia_save_first_letter' );

To make this code your own, you need to:

• Replace post in array('post'); with the name of your custom post type (only if you’re using a custom post type).
• Replace glossary in  $taxonomy = 'glossary'; with the name of your actual taxonomy

To find the name of your custom post type, click on Post Types → Manage and check the Name/Slug column. To check the name of Taxonomies, click on Taxonomies button and check the Name/Slug column:

You can then add this code to your site using a plugin like Code Snippets (I marked the two areas that you need to modify with arrows to make things clear):

Once you add the code, you’ll no longer need to manually edit the taxonomy for each piece of content. Instead, WordPress will automatically take the first letter of the post and add it to the taxonomy whenever you publish or update the piece of content.

You can see this in action below:

Step 5: Add content to the alphabetical list

Now, you’re ready to create the various alphabetical lists of your content.

After buying Posts Table Pro, you will get a confirmation email that includes a download link and a license key. Once you get the email, download the plugin from the link provided and save the zip file to your computer.

Next, upload the plugin to your WordPress admin by going to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, selecting the zip file, and then activating it. Once activated, the setup wizard will take you through a step-by-step process to create your first table. The wizard will guide you through the process of selecting columns, adding filters, and customizing the display of your table. With these easy-to-follow steps, you can quickly set up your Posts Table Pro plugin and start creating tables to display your content in an organized and efficient manner.

Here are some tips on which specific settings to choose in the table creator:

Choose which type of content to display

To create a table listing the pages or posts for a specific letter of the alphabet, the first step is to provide a name for your table and select the post type you want to display.

After giving your table a name and selecting the post type, the next step is to choose which posts or pages to include in your table. The available options will differ based on the post type you selected in the previous step. For example, if you chose a post with custom taxonomy, you will be presented with the relevant taxonomies to select from.

For example, to display content from the Movies post type, just choose 'Movies' from the dropdown menu in the 'Create' tab.

Choose which columns to display in your table

Now that you’ve selected what type of content to display, you need to choose the specific information that you want to display as columns in your table. For example, depending on what you’re displaying, you might want to show:

• Post title
• Custom fields
• A link or buy button
• Etc.

To do that, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add". You can also reorder columns by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column heading.

Filter posts to display them alphabetically and set the sort order

Add filters to your table that enable users to refine their selections. Filters appear as dropdowns above the table, allowing users to quickly sort and find the information they need. You can add as many filters as you like, depending on the content of your table and what your target audience would find most helpful. For example, you can add a filter for titles or categories.

In addition to filters, you can also choose how to sort the table. You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction. Sorting allows you to arrange your table's contents in ascending or descending order based on a particular column, making it easier for users to find what they are looking for. For example, if you have a table of books, you could sort them by name, allowing users to quickly find their books in alphabetical order.

Display your table

Once you have completed creating your table using the Post Table Pro plugin, there are two ways to add it to your website:

1. Using the Gutenberg editor: In the Gutenberg editor, you can insert a 'Post Table' block by clicking on the plus (+) sign and searching for 'Post Table'. Once you select the 'Post Table' block, it will be added to your page. You can then customize it further by choosing which table to display and other settings.
2. Using shortcode: If you're not using the block editor or prefer to use shortcode, you can copy the shortcode from the final page of the WordPress table builder. You can then paste the shortcode anywhere on your site, such as a page, post, or widget. The shortcode for each table also appears on the main list of tables in Post Tables → Tables, so you can easily access it at any time and add it to your site. By using shortcodes, you have the flexibility to place the table on any page, regardless of its content.

Step 6: Create tabs using Shortcodes Ultimate plugin and insert shortcode

If you want to create a set of clickable tabs like the example above, Shortcodes Ultimate provides an easy, theme-agnostic solution. With that being said, if your theme does include already functionality for tabs/toggles, we recommend using that first. If not, go for Shortcodes Ultimate!

To get started:

• Install and activate the free Shortcodes Ultimate plugin
• Go to the WordPress editor for the page you want to add your WordPress alphabetical index to
• Click on the new Insert shortcode button above the editor toolbar (or use a block if you're using the Gutenberg editor)
• Select the Tab option

• Enter “A” in the Title and Anchor

• Enter the Posts Table Pro shortcode in the Content box
• Click Insert Shortcode
• Repeat the process for each letter in the alphabet, making sure to change the letter in the Posts Table Pro shortcode each time to display the correct taxonomy term

Once you’ve added 26 shortcodes for all the letters in the alphabet (27 if you want to collectively include numbers 0-9 as a separate option), wrap the entire set of shortcodes in the [su_tabs] shortcode. You should have a separate [su_tab] shortcode for each letter of the alphabet, each containing a Posts Table Pro table.

If you get stuck, skip ahead. I've provided some sample shortcodes that you can copy and paste straight into your page.

Sample A-Z shortcode for you to copy

If the above seems a bit tricky, don't worry. Here's a set of sample shortcodes that you can use to get started. Just paste the entire group into your page, then replace 'alphabetical_letter' with the actual name of the taxonomy you're using to tag your posts with the correct letter":

[su_tabs]
[su_tab title="A"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:a"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="B"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:b"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="C"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:c"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="D"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:d"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="E"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:e"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="F"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:f"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="G"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:g"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="H"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:h"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="I"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:i"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="J"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:j"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="K"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:k"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="L"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:l"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="M"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:m"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="N"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:n"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="O"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:o"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="P"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:p"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="Q"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:q"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="R"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:r"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="S"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:s"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="T"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:t"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="U"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:u"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="V"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:v"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="W"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:w"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="X"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:x"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="Y"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:y"] [/su_tab] 
[su_tab title="Z"] [posts_table term="alphabetical_letter:z"] [/su_tab]
[/su_tabs]

Enjoy your new WordPress alphabetical index

Now, if you Publish your page, you should be able to see your WordPress alphabetical index.

Here’s what my example looks like after adding a few more movies. I’ll use a GIF so that you can see how the alphabetization works:

If you want to remove the search, filter, and/or pagination options, you can add additional shortcode parameters to further customize how things look and function.

And if you want to enhance your index with more information, here’s a neat way to display extra information using custom fields...

Enhancing your WordPress alphabetical index with custom fields

Because Posts Table Pro can display custom fields, you can use custom fields to display additional information as a separate column in your index.

For example, in my alphabetical movie list, it might be helpful to include extra information for things like:

• Release Date
• Director
• Etc.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Add custom fields using Easy Post Types and Fields plugin

To add custom fields to a custom post type, just edit that custom post type from the Post Types → Manage interface.

On the other hand, if you want to add custom fields to your regular WordPress posts, you’ll need to:

1. Go to the Post Types page and click on the Custom Fields button for the respective ost type.
2. Click on the Add New button on the Manage Custom Fields page.
3. Give your custom field a name, slug, and type. The type can be a simple text or a visual editor.
4. Click on the Add custom field button.

For example, here’s what it looks like after I’ve added a few custom fields:

Once you save your changes, you’ll be able to add information directly to those fields if you go to the relevant post type:

Step 2: Include custom fields as columns in Posts Table Pro

Now that you have your custom fields, all that’s left to do is include them as columns in your table. To do that, add a comma between each column you want to display.

You need to know the custom field name for this. You can find the field name in the Post Types → Manage interface:

So to add columns for Director and Release Date to my example from before, I would go to Post Types → Tables and click to edit my table. On the columns page, I would click to add a custom field column and add the custom field name.

Put it all together, and my example alphabetical movie index looks like this:

You may also like: How to use a WordPress index plugin to list pages, posts or any custom post type.

Create a WordPress numerical index with tabs for numbers 0-9

So far, you've learned how to create an A-Z alphabetical index in WordPress. If you'd like to create a numerical index - for example with tabs for numbers 0-9 - then the instructions will work for that too.

Creating An Alphabetical Index Of WooCommerce Products

All the steps that I’ve shown you in this article can be easily adapted to create a WordPress alphabetical index of WooCommerce products using our WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Essentially, you’ll perform identical steps to everything I’ve discussed above but focus on the product post type that WooCommerce creates.

Here’s a quick summary of the steps that you’ll want to take:

• Use Easy Post Types and Fields to create a new Alphabetical Letter custom taxonomy that is associated with the Products post type
• Take the same code snippet from Step 4 and apply it to the product post type to programmatically add the product’s first letter to the Alphabetical Letter taxonomy that you created
• Use the WooCommerce Product Table shortcode to filter products by taxonomy and control what information is displayed
• Add the WooCommerce Product Table shortcode to tabs that you create with Shortcodes Ultimate

The advantage of using WooCommerce Product Table is that you'll be able to easily include product images, Buy buttons, and other eCommerce-focused information in your alphabetical product table.

Posts Table Pro is your flexible WordPress A-Z plugin

If you want to create a flexible WordPress alphabetical index, Posts Table Pro gives you all the functionality that you need.

You'll be able to organize any type of content, including custom post types. And you'll also be able to manipulate your content's front-end display by choosing exactly what shows up in the index, including custom fields.

Remember - to create the alphabetical list like the example above, all you need is:

• Posts Table Pro (or WooCommerce Product Table if you want to create an alphabetical list of WooCommerce products)
• Easy Post Types and Fields to create the custom taxonomy and/or custom post type
• Shortcodes Ultimate to display everything in a tabbed A-Z list (or your theme's built-in options)

Have any further questions about how to create a WordPress alphabetical index? Leave us a comment and we'll try to help out!

WordPress table plugins offer a convenient method for adding tables to WordPress sites without using HTML tables. Whether this is in a post, a page, or even more complex implementations such as a WooCommerce store, they let people quickly navigate large amounts of information and find what they’re looking for.

If you're wondering how to create a table in WordPress, then you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll cover everything you need to know about adding tables to your WordPress site, like:

• How to add a simple static table to a post. 
• Dynamically creating tables that list information from the WordPress database, such as your latest blog posts, documents, audio files, or WooCommerce products. 
• How to customize your table columns, add a search box and filters, and much more.

Even if you don't have any experience with WordPress tables, don't worry! We'll provide you with step-by-step tutorials to help you navigate the world of WordPress table plugins.

Throughout this tutorial, we'll explore the various WordPress table plugins available on the market, but we'll focus on one in particular: Posts Table Pro. This plugin is highly innovative because you don’t have to spend time adding data to your tables manually. Instead, it creates them based on information that is already stored on your WordPress website!

Whether you're a blogger, running an e-commerce site, or anything in between, this guide will provide you with all the information you need to create engaging and dynamic WordPress tables for your site. So, let's get started!

What are WordPress tables?

WordPress tables are visual representations of data that can be organized in a number of rows and columns within a website. They present information in a clear and organized manner, making it easier for website visitors to understand and analyze. WordPress tables can be used for a variety of purposes, including searchable databases, product comparisons, pricing tables, event schedules, and more.

WordPress tables can be created manually using HTML and CSS, but this requires coding knowledge. Alternatively, you can use WordPress table plugins to create tables using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

What are the common uses of WordPress tables?

WordPress tables have a wide range of uses, including:

1. Displaying data: WordPress tables can be used to display any kind of data, from sports scores to survey results. This can be helpful for organizations or individuals who need to present data in an easy-to-read format.
2. Creating directories: WordPress tables can be used to create directories of businesses, organizations, or people. This can be helpful for local communities or niche industries.
3. Listing resources: WordPress tables can be used to create resource lists, such as recommended books, tools, or websites. This can be especially helpful for bloggers or content creators who want to provide value to their readers.
4. Displaying pricing tables: Pricing tables are an essential feature for any business that sells products or services. A well-designed pricing table can help customers compare different plans or packages and make informed decisions.
5. Creating event schedules: WordPress tables are good for creating event schedules for conferences, festivals, and other events.
6. Document libraries: A table layout is also an excellent way to present documents because users can quickly search, sort, and filter the table to find items in the document library.
7. Showcasing product comparisons: eCommerce product comparison tables are a great way to help customers make informed decisions when shopping online. By presenting product features side-by-side, customers can quickly see which product best suits their needs.

What methods can you use to add a table to a WordPress site?

There are several possible answers to the question of how to create a table in WordPress. It all depends on what kind of table you want to create. Let's look at the options:

Method 1: Create simple tables without a plugin

There are several ways to do this:

• The Gutenberg block editor: The table block in Gutenberg editor allows you to create tables within WordPress. This method is simple and effective, but it comes with limited customization options like the tables in other page builder plugins. You also have to add all the data to the tables manually.
• Google Sheets or Excel: You can create a table in Google Sheets or Excel and then paste it into WordPress. This method is simple and effective. However, you won't be able to customize or edit table formatting once it's in WordPress, and the table may not be responsive on mobile devices.
• An online table builder tool: Online table builder tools allow you to create tables with various formatting options and then export them as HTML code. You can then paste this code into your WordPress site.
• Custom HTML code: If you have coding experience, you can create table WordPress using custom HTML code. This method gives you complete control over the formatting and customization of the table, but it requires more technical knowledge.

Method 2: Use a static WordPress table plugin

A static table plugin can make the process of creating and adding tables to your WordPress site much easier. With a plugin, you can create customizable tables with various formatting table options and ensure that they are responsive on any device. Plugins like TablePress and DataTables are good examples of this.

Method 3: Use a dynamic WordPress table plugin

This option creates stylish tables like a static table plugin. However, a dynamic plugin like Posts Table Pro creates tables automatically using information already stored in your WordPress database. You save time as you don’t need to add or update the tables manually. They also come with extra features like searching, sorting, and filtering to help customers to find information in the table 🔥

Next, I'll show you how to create a custom table in WordPress using each of these 3 methods.

Method 1: How to create a table in WordPress with WordPress Block Editor

The Gutenberg editor which is built into WordPress comes with its own 'Table' block. This lets you create very simple static tables, without any fancy functionality such as search, sort or filter:

1. Create a page using the WordPress block editor (Pages → Add New).
2. Click the + icon to add a new block.
3. Find and insert the 'Table' block.
4. Choose how many rows and columns you'd like to have the table to have. (You can also add and remove them later using the block toolbar.)
5. This will insert a blank table into your page. Click in it to add the content to each of the table cells.
6. Use the right sidebar to format the table. For example, you can add a fancy-looking header or footer row.

Method 2: How to use TablePress to create tables

The most popular basic WordPress table plugin is TablePress, a free plugin with hundreds of thousands of installations. You can extend its core functionality using paid extensions.

The TablePress plugin lets you create a table in WordPress that can be sorted by contents. You can add extra features such as links, images, and pagination for large tables.

How to create a table in WordPress with TablePress

1. Go to Plugins → Add New and search for "TablePress".
2. Install and activate this free table plugin.
3. Click on the new 'TablePress' section in your WordPress Dashboard.
4. Click 'New' to create a table in WordPress from scratch, or 'Import' to create your table from an existing file (like Google Sheets or a CSV file). For example, let's say you wanted to create a pricing table:

Adding the table to your site

Once your pricing table data is added, you can use the Table Content section to edit data displays, the Table Manipulation section to control how the data displays and the Table Information section will show the shortcode (such as [table id=1 /]). Paste this into a WordPress post, page, or text widget, in order to display the table on your site. At the bottom of the page, you can control if your table is sortable.

Showing your new table on the front end of your WordPress site is straightforward: copy the shortcode, and paste it into the post, page, or sidebar widget you want it to display. The pricing table in WordPress might look something like this:

You can now show off your table to visitors! If you need to update any of the data, return to the TablePress options, select your table, make the changes, and then save changes.

Limitations of basic WordPress table plugins

Manual table plugins are perfect if you want to display static data in a WordPress table, such as pricing information. However, they're less suitable for displaying more dynamic data such as a searchable database or member directory. That's because:

To tackle these limitations, you’ll need a more dynamic type of WordPress table plugin. This is precisely what we’ll look at next.

Method 3: How to automatically create WordPress tables using Posts Table Pro

Posts Table Pro is an innovative improvement to WordPress tables plugins. It is the best table plugin because it lets you dynamically use information already on your WordPress site. This could be posts, pages, products (from any e-commerce plugin), documents, upcoming events (from any events plugin), portfolio items, and literally anything else.

Posts Table Pro also comes with formatting options that enable you to customize and edit table background color, font, spacing, and design. You can even create comparison tables and pricing tables or display a league table!

If you have your table data stored as a post or custom post type in WordPress, Posts Table Pro can automatically create a sortable table for you. This makes it incredibly easy for beginners and experts alike. That's because there’s no data entry, no data to ever update, and everything happens automatically. It's also incredibly easy for your visitors, as they’ll be able to quickly find what they’re looking for in an always-up-to-date, sortable, searchable, and responsive table that looks great on mobile devices. No more old-fashioned fixed width tables 😅

What are custom post types and do I need them for my WordPress tables?

To understand the power of a dynamic WordPress table plugin, it's helpful to understand custom post types.

Custom post types are WordPress’ way of storing data: plugins such as WooCommerce, The Events Calendar, and advanced plugins such as Easy Post Types and Fields (which lets you create your own post types), all use custom post types. Technically, any WordPress post or page is a custom post type too; essentially any kind of content stored in WordPress is probably a custom post type.

As Posts Table Pro can dynamically create tables from any custom post type, this makes it incredibly powerful.

How to create advanced tables in WordPress

1. Get the plugin here, and then download it to your computer.
2. Head to Plugins → Add New → Upload, and then select the ZIP file you just downloaded. After uploading, click on the Activate button.
3. A setup wizard will automatically appear to guide you through creating your initial table. Set up your tables as follows:

Step 1: Name and Post Type

Give your table a name for internal use, which will appear in the list of tables in the WordPress admin. Then, choose the post type you want to display. If you don't have a content type, you can easily create one using the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin. Just click on the "Create a new post type" link to start.

Step 2: Choose posts

Select which posts or pages to include in your table. The available options on this page will depend on the post type you selected on the previous page. For example, if your post type has any custom taxonomies, they will also be listed.

Step 3: Customize table columns

Customize the columns you want to display in your table by selecting which columns to add and in what order. For instance, if you're creating a blog website, you may want to include details like:

• Title
• Author
• Date publish

To add a column, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add." The added columns will appear in the list of columns above, and you can reorder them by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column title. You can also click the pencil icon to rename a column or use the toggle to hide the column name completely. To remove a column, click the X icon next to it.

Step 4: Add filters

To help users refine their selections, add filters to your table. Filters appear as dropdown menus above the table, and you can add as many as you like. The available filter options will vary depending on the post type selected on the first page. For example, you can add filters for categories and tags.

Step 5: Enable lazy loading

If your table includes hundreds or thousands of items, enable lazy loading to ensure optimal performance. However, using lazy load has some implications, so make sure you understand how it works before enabling it.

Step 6: Choose sorting options

Customize the sorting options for your table. You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction.

Step 7: Finished!

Once you've completed creating your table with the Post Table Pro plugin, the setup wizard will confirm that you're finished and provide instructions for inserting the table onto your WordPress site. You can choose to use the "Post Table" block in the Gutenberg editor or copy the shortcode from the table builder and paste it anywhere on your site, giving you the flexibility to place the table on any page.

How do I format a table in WordPress?

Much of the WordPress table formatting comes from the settings we discussed above. For example, you can format the table columns, controls, and so on.

Posts Table Pro also has additional table formatting options on its settings page. This includes design and color options to change how the table looks. To access these, go to Post Tables → Settings and tweak until you're happy 🎨

Case study: Posts Table Pro in action

Here’s a real-world from Dr. Claudia Welch, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine. She has created a wealth of courses which are for sale on her website.

Dr. Welch found that some students prefer to buy individual lessons from her courses, rather than the full course. This means she offers dozens of different products. As a result, her website uses Posts Table Pro to list all of these courses, sortable by name, category, and price. Visitors can click on any of the courses to find out more information and buy them if they wish.

Posts Table Pro made it simple to dynamically generate a sortable table that displays all of Dr. Welch’s courses. Easy for visitors, and easy to maintain. This is a great case study of how Posts Table Pro can make a website better for everyone :)

Related WordPress tutorials: How to create custom WooCommerce product tables to sell products online.

Troubleshooting common table issues

Even with the best WordPress table plugin, you may still encounter issues when it comes to displaying tables on your site. Here are some common table issues and how to troubleshoot them.

Tables not displaying correctly

1. Incorrect shortcode syntax: If you’re using a shortcode to display your table and it’s not showing up properly, make sure you’ve entered the shortcode correctly. Check for any typos or missing brackets.
2. Plugin or theme conflicts: Sometimes, conflicts with other plugins or your WordPress theme can cause tables not to display correctly. Try disabling other plugins or switching to a different theme to see if this resolves the issue.
3. Table data formatting issues: If your table data is not displaying properly, check to make sure you’ve formatted it correctly. Ensure that you close all cells and avoid adding any unnecessary HTML code. (This won’t happen if you use a good table plugin like Posts Table Pro, which handles everything for you.)

Table performance issues

1. Excessive data in tables: If your table has a large amount of data, it can slow down your site’s performance. Consider breaking up the table into smaller sections or using pagination to make it more manageable.
2. Plugin or theme conflicts: As with tables not displaying correctly, conflicts with other plugins or your theme can cause performance issues with tables. Try disabling other plugins or switching to a different theme to see if this resolves the issue.
3. Server or hosting issues: Server or hosting issues can cause slow table performance. Contact your WordPress hosting provider to see if they can help you troubleshoot the issue.

Accessibility issues with tables

1. Lack of alternative text: If your table contains images, make sure you’ve added alternative text to them for users with visual impairments.
2. Missing table headers: Table headers are important for users who rely on screen readers. Make sure each column has a header. Table plugins like Posts Table Pro add table headers automatically and let you customize them.
3. Inconsistent table design: Consistent design helps users understand and navigate your table. Make sure your table is easy to read and follows a consistent design throughout.

Next steps: Using Posts Table Pro for your WordPress table management

I hope you've enjoyed this complete guide to the best WordPress table plugins. We’ve answered the question "How to create a table in WordPress" in 3 different ways, ranging from manual tables to auto-generated tables with advanced features.

As we have seen, Posts Table Pro has everything you need to create dynamic, searchable and sortable tables: