Since the upgrading done in April bloggers have continued to post their problems with the new features to the wordpress.com support forum. Many of those posting have been and some continue to be plagued with problems when it comes to posting images. There are several blogging tips posts and tutorials in this blog that have been created and published to directly respond to problems with images.
(1) Without an alt tag, Google will likely fail to index your images correctly according to the keywords you select. Note that it takes up to 6 months for Google image search to find your pictures, but it will miss your pictures altogether if you don’t use alt tags correctly. The new image uploader has been stripping these out automatically until very recently. This tutorial aims to help you fix those alt and title tags for your images which did not stick during the upgrade period.
(2) This tutorial is the first of two on the subject of images and image editing. They are not intended to turn everyone into image editing experts, but I hope to be able to give you some useful information and tips on working with images that will help you maintain the highest quality by keeping a few simple things in mind.
In part two of the tutorial you will discover how to preset WordPress image sizes as well as using image editors to crop and size images prior to uploading.
(3) The steps for uploading and inserting images in the new WordPress.com dashboard are different than before, but this tutorial will guide you through it, and once you have done it a few times you will be on your way to happy blogging again. I includes blogging tips along the way for any peculiarities that could trip you up.
(4) I wish I had a magic bullet for the image upload problems people are having, but I don’t. What I do have is a few tips that have worked for others, but not everyone. For those having issues with the new Flash-based image uploader introduced with the upgraded WordPress.com dashboard, WordPress has now given you a non-Flash based option.
(5) WordPress gives you three size choices when you insert an image into a post or page using the “Add media” function: thumbnail, medium (approximately 300px in the longest dimension), and “full size” which actually isn’t, and is approximately 450px in the longest dimension.
WordPress actually uploads the full sized image, and then scales it when it is inserted into the post or page, so your full-sized image is actually there. If you pre-size your images to the size you want in an image editing program prior to uploading them, these three choices won’t work for you if you want to have the full size in your post or page.
The procedure that I outlined in this earlier post is one way to insert images without WordPress resizing them (even when you select full sized), but I have found another way that at least for me is quicker.
(6) The introduction of the new wordpress.com ugrade includes a Flash-based image uploader that has resulted in some problems. As already pointed out within these pages, the image resizing protocols provided have caused some confusion and an option to use the old ‘browser uploader’ has now reappeared in response. Image alignment in the new wordpress.com
(7) How good is WordPress at resizing and resampling your images?
Related posts found in this blog:
Deep link posts: Bring your readers back again and again
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Pentad
May 20, 2008
Excellent! I stumbled it, and sent it to my list of friends.
timethief
May 20, 2008
@Pentad
Thank you so much! My guest bloggers will benefit and everyone else will too. :)
Dave
May 20, 2008
The link at (3) currently leads to a 404.
Linda
May 20, 2008
outstanding information! I will be using it and I hope everyone else will as well!
Thank You.
timethief
May 20, 2008
@Dave
Thanks so much for letting me know. I have now ‘fixed” it. :)
timethief
May 20, 2008
@Linda
Thanks for the compliment. It’s appreciated. :)
axecity
May 20, 2008
This is really important for all.
Stumbled!
Chris
May 20, 2008
Nice post bugger lugs
Ummm … thanks, I think ;)
Nita
May 21, 2008
You had disappeared from your other blog and it took me sometime to find you. Anyway, I am reading you again. :)
timethief
May 21, 2008
@Nita
I really didn’t disappear I had a tremendous backend problem I was not discussing with my readers. I still have a broken editor and I could go on and on but I won’t. :)
timethief
May 21, 2008
axecity
Thanks for the stumble. I appreciate that the fact that you thought the post was worthy of it. I never stumble my own posts. :)
Scott Thong
May 21, 2008
I’ve just used the raw HTML coding to add and size my images since the reformatting. The image uploader still crashes my browser every one in 20 times.
timethief
May 21, 2008
@scott
You are not alone.
KAMERUN SCOOP
May 22, 2008
Thanks for all.
timethief
May 22, 2008
@kamerun scoop
You’re welcome.
robertstevenson
June 28, 2008
I missed this post earlier, but it was recently referred to me. It is very valuable, and it helped me solve my upload troubles. Thanks
Dr. Nicole Sundene
October 1, 2008
Thanks so much for this information. I have tried downloading flash, but am still encountering this error message:
Unable to create directory /var/www/vhosts/kitchentablemedicine.com/httpdocs/wp-content/uploads/2008/10. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
If someone can tell me what this means I would appreciate it!
Richard
October 2, 2008
You are going to have to check with your web host. It sounds like perhaps a permission issue with your uploads directory. Both wp-content and uploads need to be “755″. It could also be an issue with your .htaccess file.
First though, go to settings > miscellaneous and make sure that under “store uploads in this directory” it says, wp-content/uploads with no forward slashes before or after. Also, in the box below that where it says, “Full URL path to files (optional)” make sure it is empty. Make sure and click “save changes” at the bottom of the page.
If that doesn’t fix it, you might have to modify the .htaccess file and put the following 4 lines at the top. Some have said that this works for them.
OK, I’ve tried twice to put the code here and it simply will not allow me to. You can get the info by going to this this thread: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/176212?replies=43#post-771395
If the above doesn’t work, then the permissions on the wp-contents and uploads directories might have to be changed to “777″. This is in my opinion the last resort since it basically opens those directories up completely to anyone on the web that might get to that directory.
Dr. Nicole Sundene
October 3, 2008
Thanks so much Richard! I will check in to these things and let you know which ameliorates the issue.
popart
January 12, 2009
Also looking for a fix for the White Screen of Death when inserting image into post/page. (Using WordPress 2.7) I’ve tried changing permissions, disabling plug-ins, .htaccess commands… Still not working. Please post fix to this problem if you find a solution. Thanks.
popart
January 12, 2009
subscribed.
Richard
January 12, 2009
popart,
In the past with this problem, force refreshing the page while you have the White Screen of Death showing will typically take care of it, but I don’t know if that holds for 2.7 or not.
My question is what browser and browser version are you using?
A couple other things to try:
1. Make sure that javascript is enabled on your browser.
2. If you are using Firefox, do you have any javascript blocking addons installed?
3. Temporarily disable any virus protection you have active. Norton doesn’t seem to like WordPress in some instances. If it works after turning off the virus protection, then what you are going to have to do is “whitelist” your blog in the virus software.
4. Again, if you are using Firefox, try disabling all addons temporarily. If things work after disabling all of the addons, you can turn them on one-by-one to determine which one is causing the issue and then check for updates, or contact the addon author and explain what is happening.
5. If you have tabs open in your browser, close all of them except for the wordpress tab and see if that fixes it. That is a workaround that I found on the wordpress.ORG forum that is working for some people.
There is one far more radical fix, but I’ll wait to hear back from you before moving on to that one.