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Add media - in WP 2.5

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The previous two posts were a kind of in-depth experiment with the new Gallery and Media Library features of WordPress 2.5.x. As you could see I uploaded quite a number of images and used extensively this new feature, so now I can evaluate them more thoroughly.

Things that I like:

  1. easy multiple upload of images
  2. one-click code insert to show the whole gallery (a gallery = all images uploaded while writing a post
  3. ability to edit the title, the caption and the description of an image
  4. ability to set the thumb size from the admin panel

Things that I find controversial:

  1. the ability to re-use the same gallery in another post (might seem fine but on the image page the “return link” points to the old post)

Things that I definitely don’t like:

  1. there is no way to exclude pics from a gallery when displayed; it’s an all or nothing deal
  2. no possibility to set the default settings of the library: like link to post or image or none
  3. if you upload images while writing a draft and delete that draft - all the image links get wrong
  4. related: if re-using a previously uploaded image in a new post and displaying the thumb linked to post/page, the backlink to the “post” points to the original post
  5. it still re-sizes your images (no it doesn’t take the width from “content” div) - have to alter core files
  6. if you can define the thumb’s width, it should be more so for the full size image

I was especially upset with the resizing. My camera is set to take images 1280px wide. After moving them from my scan disk to the computer, I use something like FastStone and batch resize them to 50% = 640px wide. Now I even changed the design of this theme that I use to accomodate my image size (had to make it a few pixels wider to have the margins and padding working!), so I don’t need any WP developer to decide for me what is the proper or ideal picture width for my blog. Although I have to admit: the majority of WP users have to be protected from themselves…

As with so many WP features: excellent basic idea for a popular demand but very controversial execution. It will either enhanced in the coming versions or plugin authors will step up and make it work normally.

What do you think?


9 Responses

  • Tony ·

    I use Faststone as well, mostly as a viewer, it’s a nice tool and free. Nice feature is that if your camera stores the rotation of the photo (most Canons do) then the image is displayed the right way up, saving you from having to rotate and save it. Of course the gallery probably won’t do that…

    Another way of doing a batch resize that I find works well is to install the Image Resizer from Microsoft Power Toys. It installs easily, and by right clicking on one or more images it will resiez them into one of 3 standard sizes, or a custom sixe if you wish. It creates the new images with the size appended to the original name. Very fast, and the resulting images are small in size.

    Nice review of the gallery of course, thanks very much.

  • csleh ·

    You mention using a gallery in another post. Have you tried to add images to an existing gallery? Even images already in the media library? I can’t find a way to add to a gallery except deleting the old images — which wipes out all the info typed in (caption, description, everything).

  • Moshu ·

    Actually, you can add new images to an existing gallery by opening the original post for editing and uploading the new image. It will go to the original gallery.

  • gregory ·

    so i am an artist with an old site, in desperate need of updating and redesign .. http://www.gregorylent.com

    would you recommend wordpress?

  • Moshu ·

    You have to know I am quite biased toward WP, so I would say - yes, you can build all kind of websites with WP.
    If you need a quote for setting up WordPress as a CMS for your site, please, contact me in private by using the Contact page.

  • Methregul ·

    I have recently started toying around with Wordpress and have been toying around with the gallery feature. I have uploaded a bunch of files via the flash uploader so that I could use them later. Is there any way to add images from your media library to a gallery? I haven’t been able to and was hoping you could help me out.
    From what I’ve been able to gather, images get associated with the post id or page id they were uploaded with. Now I am a lazy person and I want to be able to upload a whole bunch of images at once and then pick and choose later which ones I need for which post. It looks that this is not supported out of the box, any plugins or workarounds are very welcome.

  • Moshu ·

    Actually, you can do that - inserting the pictures one by one in any post from your Media Library. It just won’t work properly with the “gallery” template tag; and if you are using the “link to page=attachment” option then it will show it is associated with the original post/Page where you uploaded it. That’s exactly the part I don’t like…

  • Attisa ·

    Занимаюсь дизайном и хочу попросить автора moshublog.com отправить шаьлончик на мой мыил) Готов заплатить…

  • nfl ·

    very nice i have wp site how i can add to my site?

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