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Gallery

Photo albums for your society's events and collections, plus a member-submitted "Picture Wall" of ancestor portraits.

What you can do

  • Create photo albums with a title, description and cover image.
  • Make an album public or members-only, and set the order albums appear in.
  • Add many photos at once, and view an album's photos as thumbnails or as a list by name.
  • Show albums on any page with the Photo Gallery page-builder widget; photos open in a lightbox.
  • Picture Wall — a gallery of ancestor portraits that members submit and staff approve. (See the note below: it can't be switched on from the admin yet.)

How to make an album

Website → Photos & Albums → Add New Album. Album Title, Description, Cover Image, Visibility (Public or Members Only) and Sort Order. Save.

Then click Add Photos and choose them from your computer or the Media Library. The album list uses the cover image as each album's thumbnail.

How to display albums

Drop the Photo Gallery widget on a page with the page builder and pick the album, or leave the album unset to show all of them as cards — click a card to open the album. The grid narrows on a phone, and clicking a photo opens it larger with its caption.

The Picture Wall

A Picture Wall is an album members add to: they upload an ancestor's portrait with the ancestor's name, their relationship and a short note, and staff approve it before it appears. The pieces exist — the [sp_picture_wall_submit album="…"] form, the [sp_picture_wall album="…" columns="4"] display, and the Picture Wall Pending queue with Approve and Reject — but an album has to be marked as taking submissions before the form will accept anything, and there's no setting on the album screen for that yet. It's on the roadmap.

If something looks wrong

Photos didn't upload. Your host limits how large an uploaded file can be. WordPress shows the limit on Media → Add New. If a photo is bigger, resize it (most genealogy photos are fine at 2 MB or less) or ask your host to raise the limit.

A photo from an iPhone won't upload. iPhones save photos as HEIC, which browsers and WordPress often can't use. Change the iPhone's camera to "Most Compatible" under Settings → Camera → Formats, or convert the photo to JPG before uploading.

The lightbox isn't opening. Check the browser's console for an error and report it with the page address.