Hi Ann,

I will speak with our Marketing Team and management to see if we can update that "Lite vs Premium comparison" to clarify what that part means exactly for new users.

Basically, that part on the top named "Creating simple Excel-like tables", this is only for our Simple tables type.

Simple table type has some unique features like merging of cells, reordering rows and an easy user interface, but you can't use any source data for it, it can't have front end editing, etc.

Please check more on Simple tables here.

2. What you need, in order to use an Excel data source and have an editable table - This is not available in the Free Plugin.

You will find it under "Database manipulation", it is named "Creating editable tables by importing CSV, Excel or Google Sheet table data".  

That is only available in the premium version.

Now, there are two ways how you can use Excel as data source in our Plugin :

1. If you Create a table linked to an existing Excel file (this is available in the Free version),

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 automatically.

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 the original source file which is connected with the Table.

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.

This table can not be edited from our Plugin.

2. Or,  If you import the file, the plugin reads the source file and creates a manual table (Manual tables and importing are a premium feature). 

It makes a new 'stand alone' SQL Table in your Database with its own set of columns and rows.

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. 

This table is fully editable in our Plugin.

To modify this table, you can either switch to the Excel-like view (this is available from Standard licence), 

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.

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.