Fairy Blog Mother
One of my blogging ‘guinea pigs’ asked me about how to ‘do’ pictures correctly. This is quite a big subject, so I’ve broken it up into two posts – here is the first one:
There are three ways to put a picture into your post, whether its straight from your computer, from your media library or if you know its URL. Go to the picture icon above this field you type your post content into:
You’ll get a menu sitting on your blacked-out screen:
If you are uploading your picture from your computer, once you’ve clicked on ‘Select Files’, it will bring up your computer’s browser for you to find the picture you want to use. Select it by clicking on the right file, and your picture will be uploaded into your Media Library for use:
Now you can give your picture a title (for recognition), add in alternative text (this is the words you put behind your picture for the search engines to read, and is usually as a description for blind users to ‘hear’ it), a caption (this puts the picture in a box with the caption underneath), a description (for the search engines), the picture’s own URL (for HTML use and for the second uploading option) and the alignment and size of the picture. After this has been completed you then choose to either upload it into the post (it will appear where you put your cursor) or save into the Media Library.
The second uploading option uses the picture’s URL, which is either provided for you by the Media Library with each picture’s storage menu, or if you have uploaded your picture into the blog’s server, to be accessed like a document:
A URL of a stored picture from the Media Library looks like this: http://fairyblogmother.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/4/P-computer2.jpg and it shows the picture has been automatically stored away in the uploads file and given a date. It is wise to highlight and copy these URLs to paste them correctly to make sure you don’t miss anything.
A URL from a picture you’ve uploaded into your server will look like this: http://fairyblogmother.co.uk/images/C-FormDashboard1.2.jpg which shows I have uploaded this picture into my images file in my FTP provider – ideal if you have a lot of pictures that might clutter up your Media Library. When you type this URL into its field, you don’t need to include the full URL, just /images/C-FormDashboard1.2.jpg will do.
Whatever URL your picture has, remember to fill it in appropriately. If it is correct, a green tick will appear next to it, if wrong, you will see a red cross, which means you have typed it incorrectly. You need to be scrupulously accurate. Don’t forget to click the ‘Insert into Post’ button.
The next option is to upload your picture directly from your Media Library, which will be if you have used it previously for another post, or if you saved your picture rather than placing it in a post:
Select the picture you want through the ‘Show’ link, and after you’ve added in all the necessary data, click the ‘Insert into Post’ button.
My next post will show you what you can do with your pictures once you’ve placed them in your post, to make them look good or perform appropriately for their chosen task.