CREATE A WEBSITE
How to Create an Image Gallery in WordPress – Free Short Course
WordPress features an in-built photo-gallery option that most users are not aware of but you can also decide to use WordPress gallery-plugins to create very amazing image-galleries that can look great on different devices with different screen-sizes. All in all, below are some of the detailed steps on how to create an image-gallery in WordPress easily.
RELATED POST:- How to Make Your Own Website from Scratch
#Method-1: How to create an image gallery while using the WordPress built-in gallery feature:
WordPress is actually equipped with a built-in gallery features that enables you to create amazing photo-galleries. In fact, this gallery-feature is very basic with very little options yet it gets the photo-job done well. So, below are the detailed steps on how to create an image-gallery in WordPress while using the built-in plugins.
- Open the post or page that is going to receive the gallery: before doing anything, you will need to open and edit the post/page where you want to add the photo-gallery. In fact, this post/page should contain a title and body where you put the content and images just like in the image featured below.
- Click on the ‘Add Media’ button: afterwards, click on the “Add Media” button which is located on the post edit-screen in order to upload the desired images. This will actually bring-up the WordPress media-uploader.
- Press “Select Files” button in the media uploader: after pressing “the Add Media” button, the WordPress media uploader will appear and you will have to click on the “Select Files” button to upload any photos. In fact, you will even be capable of selecting photos that you had previously uploaded to the media-library.
- Click on the “Create Gallery” linkafter selecting photos: after uploading and selecting your photos, you will need to click on the “Create Gallery” link that is located in the left column. Additionally, you will need to press on the “Ctrl” button in order to select several images in your gallery and afterwards click on the “Create a new gallery” button that appears below the photos just after pressing on the “Create Gallery” button.
Click ”Create a new gallery
- Adjust the gallery settings: after pressing on the ‘Create a new gallery’ button, the media-uploader will bring-out the selected images and gallery-settings which are located on the on the right-section of the page. These settings will actually allow you to add captions to each image in the gallery. You will also be able to select how you want the photos to be linked, image-size and number of columns to use in the gallery.
- Click on the “insert gallery” button: ounce you have finished setting your gallery, click on the “insert gallery” button so that the gallery can be placed into your post/page. In fact, this button will close the media-uploader window and you will actually be able to view your photo-gallery in the post-editor.
Below is the photo-gallery in your post after pressing on the “insert gallery” button:
- Save and publish your post or page: after inserting the photo-gallery into your post/page editor, save and publish the post or page and then visit your website in order to achieve a full-view of your photo-gallery. However, you will notice that the WordPress inbuilt gallery lacks some important features like; if the image opens in a new window then you will have to click on the back-button to view the other gallery-photos and this gallery isn’t fully mobile-responsive hence you will need to install other gallery-plugins in order to achieve effective and professional-looking photo-gallery results.
Activate gallery
Publish post with Gallery
RELATED POST:- How To Make a Website from Scratch for free
#METHOD-2: How to create an image-gallery using installed WordPress Gallery-plugins (Like; Envira):
If you really want to add more professional, nice-looking image-galleries to your website, then you will have to install WordPress gallery-plugins like; Envira-gallery, FooGallery, NextGEN Gallery and a lot more. However, ENVIRA Gallery plugin happens tobe one of the best WordPress gallery-plugins whereby it will enable you create nice-looking and modern image-galleries that are fully responsive in WordPress. In fact, the ENVIRA plugin is very fast and it’s equipped with several features which include a light-box popup, easy image navigation, a drag and drop builder and several advanced gallery templates. So below are some of the steps that you will need to follow in order to install, activate and use the ENVIRA gallery-plugin onto your WordPress website:
- Go to plugins and search for Envira: the first thing you will need to do is to go to your WordPress Dashboard and then locate the “plugin” link. Afterwards, click on ‘plugins’ and then drop-down list will appear. In the drop-down-list, click on the “Add New” link and you will actually be able to access the WordPress plugins market-place. Locate the search-button which is actually positioned on the upper right-section and then type in “ENVIRA” Or “gallery” in order to get a list of several gallery plugins.
- Install Envira on your WordPress: after searching for the Envira plugin and getting it, install this plugin onto your WordPress by simply over the “Install Now” button that is located on the right-side of the box in which Envira plugin-appears. In fact the Envira plugin will start installing as soon as you press onto the “Install Now” button.
- Activate the Envira plugin: afterwards you will have to activate the Envira plugin in order to make it functional. In fact you even need to enter the Envira license-key that you can actually get from your account on the Envira Gallery website. So you will have to locate “Envira Gallery” and then go to “settings” in order to enter the license-key. However the version of Envira I installed was free and it didn’t require a license-key but there are actually upgraded versions of Envira that will require you license-key.
Follow the steps featured in the photo below in case you want to upgrade your Envira gallery to premium-version. In fact, you will to press on the “Add New” in order to access this upgrade-window which is located in the “External Gallery” section.
- Add your images: after installing and activating your Envira Gallery plugin, you will now start adding photos to your posts using Envira. So, you will need to locate “Envira Gallery” then go-to “Add New” in order to create your first gallery. In fact, a page featuring “Native Envira Gallery” and “External gallery” will appear after clicking on the “Add New” button.
- Add a title and then click on “select files”: you will now have to add a title of the gallery into the “Enter title here” space and after click on “select files from computer” button to upload any images on your computer or you may click on the “select files other sources” inorder to choose files/images from your WordPress media library. Additionally, this gallery-plugin also the user to just drag and drop the files into the specified space in order to add images/photo more easily.
- Select the desired number of images: an image tab will appear and then you will need to select a preferred number of images you want to appear in the Envira-gallery and then upload these images form your computer or just press on the “Insert into Gallery” button if the images selected where in the WordPress media-library.
Below is how the images will appear after uploading them into the Envira gallery section.
- Edit your images: after uploading your images into the Envira-gallery, you will need to edit them by simply clicking onto the pencil-icon of each image in order to add a title and alt-text. In fact, this step is very important especially if you got your images from another source because they may need a change in titles and alternative-texts in order to make them look unique to the search engine.
- Click on the “config” tab to adjust gallery settings: afterwards you will need to click on the “config” tab in order to access the gallery settings. This will actually allow you adjust the gallery settings which include; number of columns, title, caption positioning, margins, heights, thumbnail-sizes, image dimensions and a lot more. Additionally, you will need to scroll the page downwards in order to access all the configuration or gallery-settings.
- Click on the “Lightbox” tab: you will also need to click on the “Lightbox” tab because it includes settings that allow users to enlarge images inform of a popup and to browse through the images without leaving the page they are placed on. So, just access the “Lightbox” tab and then tick the box on the right-side of the “Enable Lightbox” option. However other features below the “Lightbox” tab can only be accessed and used after upgrading to a professional Envira Gallery version and these features include; mobile, videos, social, tags and pagination.
- Publish your gallery: after making all the necessary settings in your gallery, you will now have to publish your gallery in any post or page on your WordPress website. In fact, pressing on “public” will just create a short cord that you can always put into your posts, pages and template files.
Below are the short codes you get after publishing your gallery. In fact, these cords can be easily placed in any position within your post/page in order to display your active gallery.
- Adding the gallery-code to your posts/pages: when you create a new post or click on any available post/page within your website, you will notice an “Add Gallery” button at the top-section that you click-on in order to select the gallery you just created. Afterwards, you will need to select the gallery and after click on the insert button and then a short code for the gallery will appear in your post/page as shown in the pictures below.
The box below will appear after clicking on the “Add Gallery” button.
- Publish your post and view the gallery: afterwards the shortcode will be placed into your post/page and then you will need to save and publish your page/post as seen in the picture below.
Below is an active gallery of my selected photos as shown on my website.
- Navigate your gallery: afterwards you will be capable of navigating through your images by simply clicking on them and they will open in the Lightbox pop-up as featured in the image below.Additionally, you will be able to view different images in your gallery by pressing either on the right and left arrow keys on your keyboard or computer screen.
All in all, the Envira gallery plugin is very effective but it may require you to get the upgraded version of it in order to achieve effective photo-gallery. In fact, the Envira image gallery plugin looks great on both computers and mobile-phones because it’s responsive.
RELATED POSTS:
1 Comment