Title: Control How Your Table Looks and Behaves
Author: Tobias Bäthge
Published: August 5, 2026
Last modified: August 7, 2026

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Get to know TablePress

# Control How Your Table Looks and Behaves

In this guide, you’ll learn how to control how your TablePress tables appear and
behave on your site. The Table Options affect your table’s structure, styling, and
metadata display.

Go to _your WordPress dashboard > TablePress > All Tables_ and edit your table 🍔
Then scroll down to the “Table Options” section.

![Screenshot of the TablePress Edit Table screen, showcasing Table Options.](https://
tablepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/tp-tut-fs-p3-screen1.png)

## Table Structure

The “Table Header” and “Table Footer” settings define how many rows at the top or
bottom of your table are treated as header or footer rows. You can recognize these
rows by their different background color in the visual editor.

Header or footer rows usually contain the column titles that label the column’s 
contents. Many visitor-facing features, such as sorting, require at least one header
row to place the interactive controls.

If your table has more than one header row, you can use the first row to **group
the column headings** in the second row.

For example, place “Length”, “Width”, and “Height” in the second header row. Then
enter “Dimensions” in the first cell of the first header row, leave the next two
cells empty, select all three cells, and click “Combine/Merge” in the “Table Manipulation”
box. The result is a single “Dimensions” heading spanning the three columns.

## Basic Styling

These options improve readability by making rows easier to distinguish and follow.
The “Alternating Row Colors” setting adds zebra striping to your table, helping 
visitors focus on the row they’re scanning. This is especially helpful with wide
tables.

If you remember placing a ruler under lines of text while learning to read, you’ll
immediately grasp the concept of “Row Hover Highlighting.” When you move your mouse
cursor over a row, the entire row will be highlighted with a stronger background
color. Put your cursor over any row in the table preview to see the effect.

## Additional Information

Often, tables benefit from a title, explanation, or additional context on the page.
For this, and for the added accessibility, you can choose to display the table’s
name and description above or below the table.

## Extra CSS Classes

This field allows you to assign additional CSS classes to your table for styling
purposes. Know that most users won’t need this unless they want multiple tables 
to share the same custom styling.

CSS classes let you apply consistent styling to tables without changing their structure.
They make it easy to control borders, colors, spacing, alignment, and other visual
elements, while allowing multiple tables to share the same design.

By defining these styles in a central CSS stylesheet, you can update the appearance
of every table using the same class from a single location. This simplifies maintenance
and ensures a consistent design across your site.

Any class name entered here can be targeted by CSS code in the “Custom CSS” field
under _TablePress > Plugin Options > Custom Styling_. [Our FAQ page has a couple of examples.](https://tablepress.org/faq/#styling-layout-css)

## Good to Know

In addition to the settings on the table’s Edit screen, all table options can be
applied via the “Configuration Parameters” field in your table’s “Advanced” section
in the block editor’s sidebar—as well as via the Shortcode. Note that these parameters
override the settings that are applied through the table’s Edit screen. We have 
an extensive, searchable [documentation page with all available settings](https://tablepress.org/faq/configuration-parameter-reference/).

If you’d like to change the colors of the “Alternating Row Colors” or “Row Hover
Highlighting” features, the premium [“Default Style Customizer” module](https://tablepress.org/modules/default-style-customizer/)
will let you do exactly that—and more!

The table description also accepts HTML code. This allows you to format the table
description should you choose to display it next to the table or to add links to
it, e.g., to sources of your table data.

Now that you know how to control table behavior and per-instance customization, 
the next step is importing existing data into TablePress from spreadsheet applications
like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

[Next: Import Existing Tables into TablePress](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/import-tables/)

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[Previous: Make Your Table Interactive](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/interactive-tables/)

**On this page**

 1. [Table Structure](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/table-appearance-behavior/#table-structure)
 2. [Basic Styling](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/table-appearance-behavior/#basic-styling)
 3. [Additional Information](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/table-appearance-behavior/#additional-information)
 4. [Extra CSS Classes](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/table-appearance-behavior/#extra-css-classes)
 5. [Good to Know](https://tablepress.org/tutorials/first-steps/table-appearance-behavior/#good-to-know)