In this part of my WordPress Guide I want to build on interest generated by previous posts and provide a solution to what many of my readers consider to be one of the biggest hustles in WordPress – Image Management.

While it might not be as complete answer as I would like it to be but short of doing a core re-write this is best I could possibly find. In this post I will talk about how to enhance your WordPress Image Management system to make it more user friendly and hopefully make you more productive…

When we can’t fix something – we can find a way to enhance it to a more manageable state. This is especially tru with WordPress. It seems like every time there is an issue identified – some programmer finds a way to address it via plugin or enhancement.

We can all wish that some of those enhancements would make it to the core for a better support but until they do (if ever) we will use the plugins provided by authors. That is assuming you actually see this functionality as something you must have …

Install and Configure Flexible Upload Plugin

In an attempt to find some form of a solution for better image processing with WordPress I have stumbled into a Flexible Upload Plugin. While it will not solve all the problems, here is list of main features quoted from the author page:

• Resize pictures at upload to the size you specify
• Let you decide whether or not to create a thumbnail and specify its size
• Optionally incrust a watermark signature in all pictures you upload
• Specify picture alignment (left, right, center) when inserting them into your posts
• Specify a plugin like Lightbox (Thickbox, Greybox) to display your pictures, or open them in a separate window
• Insert a caption for each picture (not supported for WP2.1+ with Wysiwyg editor)
• Multi-language support

Installation is simple – just upload it into your plguins directory as outlined on Author blog, activate the plugin and you are almost ready to use it … I say almost because you REALLY have to visit the Options page and configure it before using. I have found some defaults were not acceptable for my blog. I had to change following 3 fields to ensure that this plugin will not break my blog:

• Default maximum for resizing: Deleted all text (blanked out)
• Signature image (for watermark): Deleted all text (blanked out)
• Link plugin or target: – Set to “new window”

I decided not to use Watermark, hence the removal of signature image. If you decide to use it, make sure to edit the image prior to setting it here …

Using New Enhanced Image Functionality

Once you have configured the new plugin to your liking – Your Upload box gets a new options, specifically option to resize image to your liking During Upload and then set alignment before sending it to editor, see images below:

Upload Resize

Set Alignment

2 Options above address some of the most common problems people have with image management. Unfortunately I’m unable to show you the options for Image Management in the Visual Editor because I use Advanced TinyMCE editor and has totally different set of image management options.

I only hope this post was helpful and recommend you have a look at Flexible Upload plugin to simplify the tasks of working with images in your WordPress blog.

Enjoy, and do leave a comment … let me know what you think!

Series Navigation

«WordPress Guide – Customizing WordPress Theme Part 3WordPress Guide: Howto Force Your Blog Load Fast»

Tags: guide posts, howto, howto-guides, WordPress, wordpress guide, wordpress-plugins
Technorati: guide posts, howto, howto-guides, wordpress, wordpress guide, wordpress-plugins,