July « 2008 « Random Acts of Photography

Not the Official WordPress.com Gallery FAQ

Posted in FAQ, Gallery, Verbose by Jennifer on 27 July 2008

→IMPORTANT: For problems or questions with self-hosted WordPress (program downloaded from WordPress.ORG) please visit their support forum. The reason is that the software used here on WordPress.COM is different and users here don’t have access to the backend of things nor can WordPress.com users install plugins. An explanation of the difference between COM and ORG can be found here. Cheers!

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Ever since introducing the new Gallery feature back in April 2008, a full Gallery-specific WordPress.com FAQ has yet to be published. While there have been a couple of WordPress.com FAQs explaining the Gallery as a part of the previous shortcodes support doc and image setting FAQs, the information about how to use the Gallery feature in your WordPress.com blog is still fairly scattered among official FAQs, WordPress.com announcements, WordPress.tv videos and forum discussions (a never-ending source of inventiveness). The information in this non-official FAQ has been gleaned from the sources mentioned above, as well as a couple of emails to WordPress.com support following my own first Gallery test post.

A Small but Important Disclaimer: Since their introduction, Gallery and Image handling behavior on WordPress.com have been a continual “work-in-progress” and things may go pear-shaped without warning. The Gallery behavior on WordPress.com blogs as described below is correct as of this Post’s update and was tested both pre- and post-publishing on my WordPress.com blog. Updates and current problems involving the Gallery feature will be listed here and removed when solved.

UPDATE September 10: WordPress.com introduces the official WordPress.com Gallery screencast. Great for those looking to use the Gallery feature straight out of the box. If you really want to work with the Gallery feature, keep reading.

UPDATE December 5: WordPress.com introduces the 2.7 Dashboard and with it the ability to configure Gallery settings right in the Image Uploader’s Gallery tab.

Update July 25, 2009: The FAQ is in the process of being updated and I have noted which sections still contain potentially outdated information. Questions always welcome in the comments.

Update September 1, 2009: There is now an official Support Document for the Gallery feature.

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What is a Gallery?
A Gallery is a thumbnail set of images that appears in your blog Post or Page. Clicking on a thumbnail image will open either the original image or a larger image in a separate Attachment page.

How do I insert a Gallery in my Post or Page?
You must be in the Editor with your Post or Page open where you want to insert the thumbnails. Click on the “Add an Image” button and select and upload your Gallery images from your computer via the Image Uploader. After your images have finished uploading, click “Save all changes” and your images will appear in a separate Gallery tab in the Image Uploader. (Hat tip to Panos.)

To edit the Title (text which appears when your mouse hovers over the thumbnail and as the Attachment page header), Caption (“alt text” for your image and appears below your thumbnail) and Description (text which appears under the photo on the Attachment page) for all of your images, click on the “All Tabs Show” link at the top of the Gallery tab. You can also edit this information for each individual image by clicking on “Show” next to the image. Save your changes.

At the bottom of the Gallery tab, below your images, you can adjust your Gallery’s settings:

Link thumbnails to: Image File or an Attachment page.
Order Images By: Menu Order, Title, Date/Time or Random.
Order: Ascending or Descending
Gallery Columns: 2 or more (Please note that changing the number of columns does not change the size of the thumbnail. More info about columns/thumbnail size further down.)

Once you’ve made your selections, then click on the “Insert Gallery” button. The Image Uploader will close.

After all that work, what you next see in your Post or Page might surprise you. In the Visual Editor you will see a graphic placeholder , in the HTML Editor you will see the WordPress shortcode [ gallery ] instead of lines and lines of code. Save your Post or Page and then click “Preview” in the Editor to see what your post will look like once published.

A Winter Day in Akko: