Tables are essential elements in delivering complex information on websites in an organized manner. But making them responsive for flawless viewing across devices can be challenging for many WordPress site owners.
This comprehensive guide will teach you how to quickly add mobile responsive tables to your WordPress site using an excellent plugin called wpDataTables.
Here‘s what you will learn:
- Key benefits of using wpDataTables for responsive tables
- Step-by-step process to build a filterable comparison table
- Additional examples and use cases where responsive tables enhance user experience
- Pro tips and best practices for optimizing WordPress tables
Let‘s get started.
Why Choose wpDataTables For Responsive Tables
wpDataTables is a very popular WordPress plugin used by over 70,000 websites for its responsive table functionality. Here are some of its standout features:
Extremely Flexible Import and Export Options
You can easily import table data from CSV, JSON and Excel files or else directly pull tables from Google Sheets into WordPress with just a few clicks. After necessary tweaks, you can also export the updated tables back into Excel with similar convenience.
Real-Time Frontend Filtering and Sorting
The plugin allows your site visitors to dynamically sort or filter tables based on column values. So they can drill down to view only the rows matching their chosen parameters.
Inbuilt Table Constructor
Don‘t have an existing data file? No problem! wpDataTables allows you to quickly construct tables manually right from the WordPress dashboard through an Excel-like interface.
Granular Control Over Styling and Display
Easily customize colors, fonts, borders, conditional formatting rules and advanced column settings like text alignment or CSS classes.
Summary Charts and Graphs
Create beautiful charts and graphs to further visualize your table data for more interesting presentations.
Clearly, wpDataTables provides full control over responsive tables in WordPress without needing to code anything from scratch. Let‘s see it in action!
Step-by-Step Tutorial: Build A Filterable Comparison Table
For this demo, we will build a mobile responsive comparison table to display specifications of popular noise cancelling headphones.
Table Demo Preview
Follow along the steps to create one for your own website:
Step 1: Install and Activate wpDataTables
First, install and activate the wpDataTables plugin like any other WordPress plugin. No special permissions or configurations required.
Upon activation, you will find its dashboard menu at wpDataTables > Add New where we can start adding new tables.
Step 2: Import Data From Google Sheets
Click the "Import from another source" option and pick "Google Sheets" to import a sample dataset file shared below:
Noise Cancelling Headphones Dataset
Confirm the column mapping and hit "Import". Easy!
Leave other settings as default and copy the handy shortcode.
Step 3. Embed Table Through Shortcode
Add the shortcode within any WordPress page and visit the front-end to see your imported table in action complete with sorting and filtering capabilities. All working flawlessly across mobile and desktop views!
But let‘s make our table more user-friendly.
Step 4. Customize Columns For Better Filtering
Go back to wpDataTables > All Tables and edit the imported sheet again. Locate the "Table preview & columns setup" section further below.
We will add dropdown filters, tweak filter types and selectively disable certain functionality per column basis. These small customizations go a long way in improving raw tabular data for visitors!
For example:
- Set Brand, Noise Cancellation Type columns filter to "Select Box" instead of plain text input
- Disable filtering on "Purchase" link column
- Add number range slider filter for the Price column instead of plain number input
Refer screenshots attached demonstrating the configs. Play around and find what works best!
Step 5. Change Default Design Scheme
Visit wpDataTables > Settings > Color & Font Settings to easily customize default appearance of all tables in one place – colors, borders, fonts, spacing etc. as you prefer for consistency.
And we have successfully created a searchable and filter friendly mobile responsive comparison table through wpDataTables without writing any code!
You may display it across multiple pages using the single shortcode generated earlier.
Additional Use Cases To Consider
While comparison tables are hugely popular, responsive data tables serve wonderfully in many other scenarios like:
- Pricing and billing tables
- Staff schedules and timetables
- Real estate property listings
- Event music setlists and playlists
- Product and service catalogs
- Members directories
- Store locators
And many more examples here.
Tips For Optimizing Responsive WordPress Tables
Here are some pro tips to refine your mobile responsive tables further:
- Use images responsibly: Ensure any images inside tables are sized for mobile screens and compressed for faster loading.
- Simplify layout initially: No need for fancy formatting. Nail down functionality first. Beautify later.
- Test filtering extensively: Verify columns filter correctly across mobile and desktop views post changes.
- Sort by key columns: Mark important columns like name, date etc. as pre-sorted to help visitors parse data faster.
- Try rearranging columns: Place columns expected to be most frequently filtered by visitors on the left for easy access.
- Stay descriptive: Use self-explanatory column headings that clearly indicate what they represent.
- Keep practicing: Creating first table is hardest. Gets easier each time for you! Start small without overwhelming yourself.
Next Steps To Level Up
Once you have mastered the basics, dive deeper into these advanced capabilities of wpDataTables:
- Building sortable charts and graphs
- Creating PDF or Excel table reports
- Adding formula columns
- Importing data from SaaS apps via Zapier
- Developing custom add-ons using developer API
The options are truly unlimited when embracing the power of responsive tables for your WordPress site!
I hope this detailed guide helps you quickly get started and gives you confidence to tackle more table scenarios through wpDataTables.
Please drop any questions you may have in comments section below!
