I know how to hand-code (X)HTML, so making a table from scratch isn’t that big of a deal for me, even though I don’t like doing it. I definitely don’t like doing it in WordPress, because when you want to add more rows and columns to your table, you have to physically do so from the HTML tab. This was truly a pain in the rump.

I’m always telling my students and clients, “Almost anything you want to do in WordPress, there’s most likely a plugin that exists to allow you to do that.” So I finally took my own advice and searched WordPress.org to see if there is a plugin that would allow me to make tables without having to hand-code them in the HTML tab.

Sure enough. There is such a plugin: MCE Table Buttons.

So exactly what does it do?

The first thing it does is add table-editing buttons in a third row on the WordPress WYSIWYG editor. See the following image:

The first icon allows you to start your table. When you click on it, you get the following pop-up:

From here, you can define several aspects of your table before moving over to the Advanced tab in this same pop-up. See it here:

Under the Advanced tab, you can set all or none of these parameters and then click Insert.

Once you’ve inserted your new table, click inside one of its cells and the other icons on the table-icon row become active. See the following image:

With these icons you can:

  • Define table row properties (icon #2)
  • Define cell properties (icon #3)
  • Insert a row above the currently-selected row (icon #4)
  • Insert a row below the currently-selected row (icon #5)
  • Delete the currently-selected row (icon #6)
  • Insert a column before the currently-selected column (icon #7)
  • Delete the currently-selected column (icon #8)
  • Split merged cells (icon #9)
  • Merge individual cells (icon #10)

Please keep in mind that this is a simple plugin which creates the third row of table-creation icons. The creator of the plugin has the following to say:

Note that this should not be used with other plug-ins that significantly alter the editor’s default behavior. It is intended to be a simple, light weight solution for editors who only want to add table management to WordPress’ included editor.

If you need any help with table-creation, let me know. I may be able to help.