Month: July 2009

Update: See more recent post offering the two latest solutions I use.

Let’s say you read my other post on this subject, but for some reason decided that backing up and then replacing a core php file in your installation isn’t something you’d like to do.

There’s a plugin that you might want to try, called attachment-extender.

Since it’s a standard plugin you just upload it into your plugins folder then enable the plugin from the dashboard.

Here’s how you use it:

• Start writing your new post
• when you’re ready to insert images click the “Add an Image” button
• Click “Select Files” and then browse for the files on your computer
• Select the multiple files you want to insert
• Wait for the files to upload.
• Now click the last tab on the “Add an image” dialog box, which should read “Media Library”
• You will see your whole media library.  The last files you just uploaded should be at the top.
• Check off each file you want to insert in your post
• Click “Insert All Checked”
• Done.

Benefits of this solution:

• It’s not a hack, but a plugin… should survive version upgrades (until the dude at the wheel wakes up and makes this a standard feature)

Drawbacks:

• Compared to the media.php change there are a couple of extra steps, especially clicking the boxes to select the images, and possibly paging to the next page of the gallery if you’re uploading quite a few images.

Of course it’s still tons better than the default of having to go to each image, and imho much better also than the upload then point with links by hand option.

If you find this useful and think you will benefit from what you read here, I would really appreciate it if you would add a link to my site from yours.
Please use the following html for the link:

Many Many Moments photography by Alessandro Di Sciascio <a href=”http://www.disciascio.com>South Florida Wedding Photographer</a>

if you add a link please send me a quick note at my email address so that I may thank you.

Update:  Here’s how I’m dealing with this currently.

There is a lot to love about WordPress.  Image uploading is NOT one of those things 🙂
One thing that is very frustrating especially for photographers, is the inability to natively import a large number of images and insert them straight into a blog post.
Yes there are gallery options, and yes you could use Microsoft’s Live Writer to insert images into your post (if you’re using Windows).

But you really should be able to do this straight inside WordPress.

I searched all over with little luck, but eventually found a gem (unfortunately I do not have a link to the place where I found it) … someone, somewhere, sometime edited the \wp-admin\includes\media.php file to provide a button that allows you to insert all the images you just uploaded.

The way it works is as follows:

• start writing your new post
• when you’re ready to insert images click the “Add an Image” button
• Click “Select Files” and then browse for the files on your computer
• Select the multiple files you want to insert
• Wait for the files to upload, they will have a checkbox next to them which is selected by default
• Click “Insert Selected”
• Done.

The only problem is that the file does not work in the latest version of WordPress (2.8.2 as of this writing).
So I took my photographer hat off and set it on the table, and put my coder hat on.  After a few hours of comparing/inspecting/searching, I was able to isolate the changes that allow for this great functionality.  Unless huge changes are made by the codex developers I think I should be able to provide an updated version when wordpress is updated.  In fact please note that anytime you upgrade wordpress you’ll probably have to reapply this.

You can download the version that works with WordPress 2.7.x here.

You can download the version that works with WordPress 2.8.x here.

Be sure to follow the very straightforward instructions included in the readme file… backup your media.php before replacing it!

Let me know if this helped you out, in the comments.

If this solution is not for you, check out this alternative.

If you find this useful and think you will benefit from what you read here, I would really appreciate it if you would add a link to my site from yours.
Please use the following html for the link:

Many Many Moments photography by Alessandro Di Sciascio <a href=”http://www.disciascio.com>South Florida Wedding Photographer</a>

if you add a link please send me a quick note at my email address so that I may thank you.