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New Gallery Captions

  1. malvedos
    Member

    Hi. Today loaded a gallery on an article Celebrations at The Factory House- kept captions short and used description box to add more detailed information, as I have done in past. Then found you have changed the way Gallery photos display when clicked - used to open in new page with full caption and descriptions - and now the descriptions are nowhere to be seen. This is a bummer. I then got curious and went back to review some old galleries, where I had used extended captions (before I figured out the description box!) and in the new Gallery display format, the captions are truncated. I have at least half a dozen galleries which were designed to step through a process and included detailed captions or descriptions - So please tell me, how do I include extended text to accompany photos in the new gallery format?

    The blog I need help with is malvedos.wordpress.com.

  2. airodyssey
    Member

    Hi. Short answer: you would need to use the "caption" only, not the "description" field. The description only shows up with the "Permalink" option.

  3. malvedos
    Member

    Fine... but that still doesn't answer my question "how do I include extended text" - the captions are truncated in many old posts, where I used the gallery as a way of explaining in detail a complex process.

    Is there any way to modify the gallery display to allow more space for the full caption to display? Alternatively can you tell me how many characters WILL display in a caption? And if description is no longer a relevant feature for casual viewers, why is the space still available for use in the input window? I dont see anything in the input screen or the support docs warning about visible text limits to captions or the fact that descriptions are no longer visible to the casual readers as they were before.

    While I like the new display, I bitterly resent the way its launch has sabatoged my back catalog of galleries and made utter nonsense of some important gallery-centric posts. Like probably everyone blogging here, I spend hours and care passionately about creating a good look and an informative post, and my back posts are still every bit as important as my latest one - and you keep pulling the rug out from under us, imposing changes and not giving us the choice to opt in or out at least for some transition period so we can re-format back content to new features, rather than wake up one day to find some of our blog postings are now a senseless mess.

  4. vreanamd
    Member

    I have the same problem. I use WordPress solely for pictures where each has a title, caption, and description. Now the pictures no longer open on a separate page and only the caption shows up.

    My page is completely useless without all three and I am very disappointed that there doesn't seem to be a way to go back to the older version.

    Is there a workaround for this?

  5. malvedos
    Member

    Please can we get some kind of help with this, some constructive alternative to just abandoning all our hard work and text associated with gallery photos ?

    I have just discovered that the available caption space is reduced according to the width of the photo - so if you use portrait rather than landscape, kiss most of your caption good bye too. This is not my blog, but is a good example of the problem - look at Volunteer Gallery Aanifeira the fourth photo the caption is only 33 letters and spaces, but the whole thing is sqashed to allow room alongside for the like and permalink thingies, and even individual words of only of only four letters get cut off because the photo is narrow.

    PLEASE can't you re-think this to give us back significant caption space, regardless of photo size, and some solution for all the now invisible descriptions? Instructing the view to clik Permalink if you really want to see the photo and text properly isn't much of a solution.

    Maybe give the viewer the option to scroll down to see caption-description on a photo when viewed? Or the blogger the option to format a specific gallery to display in the old blog-page-per-view permalink format if we want to? At least move the like and permalink buttons to some other place where they wont rob us of much needed caption space? Thanks.

  6. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    Volunteers like airodyssey or me cannot do anything about a change WP suddenly imposed without making it optional and without having thought it through.

    For the only (not very satisfactory) staff replies so far, see these threads:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/when-will-you-launch-the-next-version-of-the-gallery-carousel-viewer?replies=3
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-switch-gallery-out-of-carosel-view?replies=65

    You can report the caption issue directly to WP:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

  7. vreanamd
    Member

    Thanks. I've reported the problem as follows:

    "Many of your members have picture-based sites that are absolutely useless without a title, description, and caption. The previous format of the gallery was perfect for these sites. Unfortunately, the new carousel does not enable titles and descriptions and also make the pictures smaller.

    These users are just a few of many who dislike the new gallery carousel: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-switch-gallery-out-of-carosel-view?replies=65

    As you can see from the link above, there are many of us who would be perfectly satisfied with the earlier version of the gallery. Since we all have active blogs, this is an issue that needs to be addressed in a timely fashion. We do not want to lose our audience simply because the gallery has eliminated everything but the caption.

    I believe it would be in your interest to make the previous gallery settings an option as opposed to making the carousel the only way to use the gallery."

  8. justjennifer
    Member

    Focusing on the Caption issue, keep in mind that Gallery thumbnails appear both on the front page and in the individual post. By definition captions are meant to be brief, as in a title or short description. In the themes I've tested so far I've been able to use up to 80 +/- characters before the caption is cut off, but in my opinion, even that is way too long.

    As far as the Carousel, Panos has already given links to Staff replies that indicate that this is the first version with refinements to come. Complaining to Support about a feature that's been implemented on WordPress.com in my experience has not brought about changes to that feature in the past, unless it was a bug.

    Just my bloated 2ยข worth, even though I have quite a bit of experience with the Gallery feature.

  9. sinthea
    Member

    panaghiotisadam and justjennifer, thank you for further leads, sympathy and advice! And to vreanamd for promoting the issue further. for anyone reading this thread, the best thread to follow up looks like the http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-switch-gallery-out-of-carosel-view?replies=65

    I will close this thread and join in the other discussion. thanks all.

  10. sinthea
    Member

    Oh acckckckck! Did they change this too? I dont seem to have the option to mark thread as resolved! If I cannot do it as a mere mortal, can one of you volunteers please close it out for us? Thanks.

  11. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    We're mere mortals too! The only user that can close a thread (apart from staff and moderators) is the one who started it.

  12. malvedos
    Member

    got it - sorry, was logged in earlier as other id... can close now and will. Sorry!!! thanks.

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