Title: Column Order
Author: Tobias Bäthge
Published: December 1, 2022
Last modified: May 14, 2025

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Order the columns in different ways when a table is shown!

# Column Order

Often, it’s easier to manage a table with the columns being in a certain order, 
or because the import source only offers the table in a certain column order. However,
the visitor should sometimes see the table’s columns in a different order.

The same is possible for rows using the [Row Order feature module](https://tablepress.org/modules/row-order/).

## Feature description

The “Column Order” feature module allows showing tables with different column orders,
namely in “random”, “reversed”, or “Custom” order.

Consider this table:

  |  Name | Year | Country | Sport |  
   |  Eric | 1986 | Sweden | Soccer |  
 |  Julia | 1991 | Germany | Basketball |  
 |  Adam | 2002 | Indonesia | Golf |  
 |  Kim | 1986 | Chile | Badminton |  
 |  Jackson | 1998 | Australia | Baseball |

Here is the same table, but with the columns and their order changed — while everything
is the same when editing the table:

  |  Country | Name | Year |  
   |  Sweden | Eric | 1986 |  
 |  Germany | Julia | 1991 |  
 |  Indonesia | Adam | 2002 |  
 |  Chile | Kim | 1986 |  
 |  Australia | Jackson | 1998 |

In this example, this was done by choosing the “Custom” column order with the custom
column order “3,1,2” compared to the first table above.

[Use this feature with a TablePress Premium plan today](https://tablepress.org/pricing/?output_format=md)

## Usage instructions

To use these features with your tables, activate the “Column Order” feature module
on the “Modules” screen of TablePress Pro or TablePress Max. Then, configure the
desired options in the “Column Order” section of the “Settings” sidebar of the table’s“
TablePress table” block when editing the post or page with the table, or use the
configuration parameters from below.

![The available settings for the Column Order module in the "Settings" sidebar of
the "TablePress table" block.](https://tablepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/
column-order-block.png)

The available settings for the Column Order module in the “Settings” sidebar of 
the “TablePress table” block.

## Configuration parameters

To configure this module’s features, you can also use these [configuration parameters](https://tablepress.org/faq/configuration-parameter-reference/)
in the “TablePress Table” [block](https://tablepress.org/faq/documentation-tablepress-table-block/),
the Elementor widget, or in the [Shortcode](https://tablepress.org/faq/documentation-shortcode-table/)
that you are using to embed the table:

  |  Module | Slug |  | Configuration parameter | Name | Description | Type | Default value |  
   |  Column Order | column-order |  | column_order | Column Order | Desired column order for a pre-ordering.
  Possible values are Default, Random, Reverse, and Custom. | enum (`default`, `random`, `reverse`, or `manual`) | `default` |  
 |  Column Order | column-order |  | column_order_manual_order | Column Order Custom Order | List of columns in the desired order, if “custom” is configured for the Column Order. | string | `""` (empty string) |

The “Column Order” feature module is part of the [**TablePress Premium plans**](https://tablepress.org/pricing/?output_format=md).

**On this page**

 1. [Feature description](https://tablepress.org/modules/column-order/#feature-description)
 2. [Usage instructions](https://tablepress.org/modules/column-order/#instructions)
 3. [Configuration parameters](https://tablepress.org/modules/column-order/#configuration)