Hi Patty,

Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologize for the delayed response as we have been experiencing an unusually high number of tickets. I am sorry that it has taken longer than usual to respond to your concern and your patience is highly appreciated.

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Generally speaking, it is possible to have filters and Table Search above our Tables,

please check our available Advanced Column Filters here;

And here you can see about Table Search.

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But i am not sure exactly how this layout needs to be in your use case.

If you just need to put images and text in Tables, we can do that,

you can check here how our Image Columns work,

and here how our Text Columns work.

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We do not have any kind of tabs available, if you mean to have that as part of one table.

But there is a workaround if you want to use multiple tables,

then you can set one table inside each tab,

or you can use one table that is differently filtered, like if you have a Column in the table that contains "Categories",

then you can pre-filter the table with shortcode to have different version of the table,

for example Tab 1 can be only for the table version filtered for "Category 1",

then Tab 2 can be the same Table, but slightly different table shortcode, you can pass "category" as a filter in the Shortcode.

I will show you examples later how to predefine filters like that,

we will first comment how to use multiple tabs on page with our tables.

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2. You can easily make multiple tabbed content on your WordPress page, and you can place different table shortcodes under each tab.

For example, check out this plugin WP Tabs that allows you to easily create multiple tabs on same page,

( i installed the Free version, they also have a Pro version if you wish some advanced features);

and you can just paste our table shortcode into each tab as you need them.

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3. Now, how to pre-filter tables :

There can be different ways to pre-filter tables in our plugin :

If you wish to try Pre-filtering tables through URL,  please check out this page with examples.

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You can also use placeholders for table generation.

1. For example, if you have a MySQL query-based table, you can use this query:

SELECT * FROM yourDatabaseTable
WHERE columnName = '%VAR1%'

%VAR1% can be defined in the Placeholders tab when you're creating a table, 

or you can pass a different VAR1 value in the table's shortcode.

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2. Or, if you don't add the condition in an SQL query ( or don't use an SQL Table),

you can add %VAR1% in column settings -> Filtering, under "Predefined filtering value".

Then, you can have different versions of the same table, with the VAR1 value passed in the shortcode,

let's say if we had a "Regions" column and we wish to filter a different region per each page.

If we want page 1 for example only filtered for "Region A" , you can set predefined filter to this column as %VAR1% (filter type has to be set as text) :

Then for a page where we need only Region 1 filtered, use shortcode [wpdatatable id=1 var1='Region A'] ,

 page 2 for only "Region B", shortcode would be [wpdatatable id=1 var1='Region B'] and so on, 

to apply the values defined in the shortcode to the filter.

( This filtering method can be used for any table type, besides Simple Tables)

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4. Layout with Image on the left, then Text on the right side :

If you need the Image to be on the left, and if these on the right are going to be columns and rows with inverted layout, such as columns on the left, and value on the right

such as

Row 1 :

Column Name :  cell value

Column name : Cell value

Column name : Cell value

Row 2 :

Column Name : Cell value...

And so on...

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This will not be possible with our current out of the box capabilities.

Pivoting the table is not a built-in option of wpDataTables, but please feel free to check out this ticket:

https://tmsplugins.ticksy.com/ticket/3042192/

One of our customers made a short tutorial for all customers that want to use the Pivot feature with wpDataTables. 

I hope that helps.

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If you wish to see a built-in option for this in the future, please don't hesitate to

Please feel free to search on our suggestions page, 

 to see if someone may be already suggested this feature. If you can't see it, feel free to add your suggestion there,  and as more people vote, the feature will move higher on the priority list.

You can certainly follow our changeLog page if you'd like ( it is also available in the plugin dashboard), where we state any changes/new features/bug fixes during updates;

and our newsletter, so you're informed about new features, bug fixes, freebies, etc.

But if you wish to try to simplify this layout and have a 'standard columns and rows structure' such as a Header row on top,

then the rows beneath one by one,

you can use our Image Column and Text Column,

you can also have an image with text in same cell, let me know if you need that and i can explain how it's done.

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5.  When it comes to working with Excel,

 there are two ways to create wpDataTables:

1. Create a table linked to an existing Excel file,

if you choose to Create a wpDataTable and upload the Excel file :

 in which case you get to select the file (upload it) that'll be used to pull the data.

 This file will be stored in ../wp-content/uploads/YEAR/MONTH/ folder. 

The file on that location can be changed/edited, but the column structure can't. 

So, if you have the file with the same name,

 the same number of columns, same headers, and the same order of columns - you'd be able to replace the original file with the new file, and wpDataTables would pick that up.

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Alternatively, if you select "URL from any domain"

Creating a table linked to an Excel file by providing its URL is pretty much the same as it is for creating a table by uploading an Excel file. 

The only difference is that you would choose the URL from any domain option instead of the WordPress Media Library option under File location when creating the table,

and when you want to edit the source file,   you don't have to edit the one that is now in your Media Library folder,

but you can edit on the original source file.

Please note:  For the option of “URL from any domain”, this source file needs to be accessible online in order to create a table from it, and the path to the file has to end with the file extention, for example with “.XLSX” or other Excel format. If the URL path to the source file does not end with a dot and its extension, it will not work.

2. 

Or,  If you import the file, the plugin reads the source file and creates a manual table. 

Once the table is created, it is no longer linked to the source file, so changing data in the table will not show up in Excel or Google Spreadsheet, and vice-versa. 

To modify this table, you can either switch to the Excel-like view, 

and then select and copy the range of cells you want to paste from the source file, and paste it in the Excel-like view, 

or you can import a new/edited CSV to update the table, as well, in the following ways :

• Replace data within an existing table.
• Add data to an existing table.
•   Replace the entire table with new data.

You can see more details on Updating manual tables from source files (CSV, Excel or Google sheet) here.

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And i just wanted to point out that you can try wpDataTables before purchasing

 on our sandbox Demo sites ( you can find links for the main plugin Demo,  

as well as add-on Demos, in my signature),

and there is a 15-day money-back guarantee period, 

so if you purchase the plugin, you can safely fully test it out, and if it doesn't fit your needs you can request and receive a refund in that period. ( same goes for all plugins and add-ons)

Let me know if you have any additional questions.