I know everyone is sick of meta, but…
It’s very important that any image included at the top of your post is properly formatted. Otherwise it won’t show up properly as a thumbnail down below, and could possibly throw off the formatting of other posts near it.
It’s also important that “more” tags are placed after one or two lines or short paragraphs on all posts. This is because I’m shooting for a sort of uniformity on the front page that brings a particular aesthetic to the site. In order for it to work, everyone has to play along.
As always, any questions or help can be directed to me and I will try to get to it. I was on vacation last week so I was pretty much out of touch, but I tried to drop by and do little fixes.
So, in a nutshell, here’s how you insert a picture now:
How To Insert An Image At The Top Of Your Post
All images must be uploaded to the site. We cannot hotlink from other sites like Flickr for images at the top of posts. You can do whatever you like for images further down, but for the one image that shows up on the front page, you need to upload to the site.
When you upload you will see this:
Notice the Link URL I have circled. This is the important part. Copy this right away. Do not click “Insert into Post.”
If you insert into post this throws everything off. Simply copy that URL and then close the window.
Next you need to scroll down a tiny bit below the place where you write your post and you’ll see a box called Post Image, that looks like this:
All you need to do is insert the link you just copied into that box and you’re done. The only time you will change anything is if you want to insert a larger image and center it at the top of the post (as opposed to a smaller image that sits to the left of the post.) Then you’ll need to change the settings just below the Post Image box you just copied into.
Image Sizes
When you download an image, prior to uploading it to the site you should use a program like Paint (or an online service like Pixlr) to change the size of the image. For images that sit to the left, this should be approximately 300 pixels. For images that sit at the top and are centered this should be approximately 600 pixels (and no larger than 640 pixels.) Again, this should be done prior to uploading.
If you want to caption an image or credit an image please do so at the bottom of your post as this formatting style does not allow captions below the image itself.
Insert “More” Tag
To keep the front page neat and tidy, all posts should be cut off with “more” tags pretty quickly. The sooner the better. As a rule of thumb, your text shouldn’t go much further down the page than the image included with your post.
Insert Galleries
Another fun thing you can do with a post is insert galleries. Simply upload all the photos you want included and rather than inserting each one individually, you can just click “Insert Gallery” wherever you want in the post and your photos will show up as nice little thumbnails. When clicked on, these thumbnails will pop off the page, like so:
Any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m sorry this has been a pain in the ass for many of you. Once you get the hang of it all it’s surprisingly easy. Just be sure that whenever you’re inserting an image, that it’s an image file and ends in .jpg or .png or something like that (and is not an attachment or link to a post, etc.)
Thanks for bearing with me, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
P.S. I’m also not getting comments to my email. No idea what’s going on…will try to fix.
I’ve saved this link into my favorites.
Is there a new “auto-tag” feature?Report
Yes.Report
You have to click the File Url button to get the full link. This was left out if the instructions.Report
No you don’t. Not when you first upload.Report
See first image.Report
Seinfeld, Season 6, Episode 5: The Pixel Nazi
Memorable Quotes:
Erik: No posts for you!
Report
Jerry: See, now, to me, that button is in the worst possible spot.
George: Really?
Jerry: Oh yeah. The second button is the key button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt. Look at it: it’s too high, it’s in no-man’s land.
George: Haven’t we had this conversation before?
Jerry: You think?
George: I think we have.
Jerry: Yeah, maybe we have.Report
Erik, for some reason, I’m not receiving follow up notifications for any of the posts on the main site. I also dont get any even for replies to my own post.Report
Me neither.Report
Me neither. Not sure why yet…Report
Another TEST.Report
Still testing.Report
When you have a chance, could you maybe send over some help with how to change the video box in the upper-right corner? I’d like to update my sub-blog’s video from Bach’s Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 — while it is indeed beautiful, there are some other things Will or I might like to put up there from time to time.Report
This is going to be changing anyways, just FYI.Report
Are we all getting the hand-drawn-looking icons that are on the front right now? I dig ’em.Report
Yep.Report
This should be a page — linked discreetly from the header bar — rather than a post that you have to re-make every so often.Report
My first post is pagified. It’s under the About page.Report
The new guy on the logo is good; the other one was a good pic, but the background not matching the white of the masthead was a little buggy.Report
You can thank Mr. Truman for that.Report
Two notes:
1. I like how you have it now with the Twitter, Facebook, Subscribe thing in the upper corner, as opposed to an advert, since it’s such a prime spot.
2. I’ve followed these instructions, step-by-step, three times now and not been able to get a picture in the post. It just doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ve got a two year old Dell, so I don’t think that’s it. I have never been able to insert videos either, following the standard protocol for that too.Report
Write a post and before you publish it email me. Do everything you are doing now. I will send you back screenshots and an explanation.
For videos, you need to copy the “old” YouTube code and insert in the HTML not the Visual editor.Report
I’m not sure if this is what you mean, but I’ve got a draft in there ready to go and I’ve tried publishing it a few times with no picture showing up. You’ll see the image link under “Post Image”, if you open it up to edit. I’m really not sure what the problem is with it. I’ve sent you an email so you can let me know what I’m doing wrong.Report
Thanks a lot for the help Erik! It’s posted- I believe correctly- a few posts down below this one.Report
Let me write up a little use case document for this.Report
So my Road Trip w/ Husky has now marched down the page to div class teasers_box . No thumbnail image, though it obviously shows up in the gallery. Not sure why at this point.Report
BlaiseP – your problem is that you’re inserting the image (and I’m only referring to the first image here) rather than taking the link and putting it in the Post Image box. Don’t insert, just place the link there.Report
Is there a reason why the pages no longer fit themselves to the width of my browser window? Firefox 3.6.28 on Mac OS 10.7.3. Something somewhere forcing the width to a fixed number of pixels?Report
I widened it. Working on making it fluid still.Report
I do this, and my thumbnails never work.Report
Rose – drop me an email and I can help. It’s not that hard but the instructions are confusing IMO.
progress.conservative@gmail.comReport
Try using your fingertips.
Works for me.
Just sayin’.
(couldn’t resist) 😉Report
Hey LoOG,
Just re-stumbled upon this website yesterday after a little while, and thought to myself, batch image resizing can’t be so hard! And then I stumbled upon this — http://birme.net/
It’s fantastic.
Enjoy it.
Best,
JennyReport