How to display PDFs in a searchable table in WordPress Free & Pro

To show PDFs in a searchable table, each PDF becomes a row — title, date, size and a download link — with a search box that filters the rows as visitors type. WordPress’s Table block is static, so you need a table plugin you fill in by hand, or a document library plugin that builds the rows from your files.

This guide explains the options, what a good PDF table needs, and how to set one up with FileDeck, which does it in its free version on wordpress.org.

Can WordPress show PDFs in a table on its own?

Only a static one. The core Table block holds whatever you type into it. You can paste a link to each PDF into a cell, but visitors can’t search, sort or filter the table, and the file sizes and dates are whatever you typed.

The File block handles one PDF at a time, with a download button and an optional inline preview. Both are fine for five files. At fifty, every new upload means editing the page by hand, and the list drifts out of date.

What are your options?

Option	Search and sort	File details	Adding a PDF
Core Table block with links	No	Typed by hand	Edit the page
General-purpose table plugin	Usually	Typed by hand or imported	Edit the table
Document library plugin	Yes	Read from the file	Upload it; the row appears

A general table plugin suits data — prices, timetables, specifications. For files, a document library plugin is less work, because each row is generated from the uploaded PDF rather than retyped. For comparisons of specific plugins, see the best WordPress document library plugins.

What makes a good PDF table?

• Search as you type, without pressing Enter or reloading the page.
• Sortable column headers — newest first, A–Z, largest first.
• Category and tag filters, so a visitor can narrow 300 PDFs to the dozen they need.
• File type and size visible before anyone clicks.
• A clear download button, plus a preview so visitors can check they have the right PDF.
• Phone-friendly rows. A six-column table doesn’t fit a phone screen, so rows should restack rather than scroll sideways.
• Search inside the PDFs for libraries where titles don’t tell the whole story.

How to display PDFs in a searchable table with FileDeck

Step 1: Install FileDeck

Free

Go to Plugins → Add Plugin, search for FileDeck, then Install Now and Activate. See install and activate FileDeck.

Step 2: Upload your PDFs

Free

Click Upload files at the top of the Documents list and drop in your PDFs. Each one becomes a published document titled from its filename, and you can set one category and a list of tags for the whole batch. FileDeck records each file’s size, type and filename automatically, so the table fills those columns for you. See bulk upload.

Titles are built from filenames — the extension dropped, hyphens and underscores turned into spaces, each word capitalised — so rename minutes_final_v3.pdf to Board minutes March 2026.pdf before uploading. For PDFs already in your Media Library, attach them one at a time from the document editor, or convert them in bulk with Pro’s bulk convert.

Step 3: Add the table to a page

Free

Edit a page and add the Document Library block. Table is the default layout, so the block shows your PDFs as a searchable table straight away, with a live preview. Or use the shortcode:

[filedeck layout="table" columns="title,categories,date,size,type,link" sort_by="date" sort_order="desc" per_page="25"]

[filedeck] on its own also gives you a table of every document, with the default columns.

Step 4: Choose the columns

Free

Set the default columns under Documents → Settings → Display, where each column is a chip you can drag to reorder. For one table, list the column keys in the columns attribute — the order you list them is the order they appear. Useful keys for a PDF table:

Key	Shows
title	The document title
excerpt	A short summary
categories, tags	Where the document is filed
date, modified	Date added, date last updated
size, type, filename	Captured from the file automatically
downloads	The lifetime download count
preview	A Preview button
link	The download button

Five to seven columns read best. Change the button text with dl_text="Get PDF", or its style with link_style. Each key is described in choose and reorder columns.

Step 5: Show the right PDFs on each page

Free

Scope a table so each page lists only what belongs there:

• category="minutes" — one category (comma-separate several).
• tag="2026" — one or more tags.
• include="12,44,91" — hand-picked documents by ID.
• show_year_filter="1" — a year dropdown, handy for minutes and annual reports.

For example: [filedeck category="minutes" show_year_filter="1" sort_by="date" sort_order="desc"].

Step 6: Let visitors preview or open the PDFs

Free

Turn on Document preview lightbox under Documents → Settings → Features and add preview to your columns. A Preview button then opens the PDF in the browser’s own viewer without leaving the page. To control what the download button does, edit a document and set Delivery to Force download or Open in browser — see force download or open in browser.

Step 7 (optional): Search the text inside the PDFs

Pro — from $59/yr. See pricing

Out of the box, search matches titles, reference numbers, excerpts, categories, tags and filenames (a document with no excerpt is matched on the opening words of its description). With Pro’s content search, build the index under Documents → Settings → Search Index and a phrase on page 12 of a PDF finds that PDF too. Text is extracted on your own server. Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so they need OCR first.

Pro also adds multi-select zip downloads, custom fields as extra columns and filters, and automatic PDF thumbnails for the image column.

How does the table behave for visitors?

• Search filters rows as the visitor types and shows a running count of matches.
• Sorting: click a column header to sort, and click again to reverse. Shift-click a second header to add a tiebreaker, up to three columns.
• Filters for category and tag are multi-select, with a count beside each option, and a Copy link button shares the current filtered view.
• On phones (below 600px), each row restacks as a card with labelled fields, so all fields stay visible without sideways scrolling.
• Large lists: past about 500 documents, the table switches to server-side search and paging automatically.

See table layout and instant search, sorting and filters for the details.

FAQ

Can visitors search inside the PDFs, not just the titles?

Yes, with FileDeck Pro’s content search. It reads the text layer of each PDF on your own server, so a match inside the file appears alongside title matches. The free version searches titles, reference numbers, excerpts, categories, tags and filenames.

How do I list only some PDFs on a page?

Put those PDFs in a category and add category="your-category" to the shortcode, or pick the category in the block settings. You can also scope by tag, or list specific documents with include. Each table on your site is configured independently.

Does the table work on mobile?

Yes. Below 600px wide, each row becomes a stacked card with every field labelled, instead of a table you have to swipe sideways.

Can a PDF open in the browser instead of downloading?

Yes. Set the document’s Delivery to Open in browser, and the button reads View and opens the PDF in a new tab. Or enable the preview lightbox so visitors can read it without leaving the table. Both are free.

Can I show PDFs as thumbnails instead of rows?

Yes — switch to the gallery layout (layout="gallery") or the grid. Tiles use each document’s featured image; Pro’s PDF thumbnails can render one from the first page automatically.

Next steps

See a live searchable table with filters and previews on the live demo. The five-minute version of this guide is list files on a page with a download button, and the bigger picture is in how to create a searchable document library. If some PDFs must stay private, read how to stop direct URL access to files before you publish them.