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NextGen Gallery is the one of the most popular of Gallery plugins for WordPress, due in large part to the sheer number of settings and options. Let us take a look at some of the more popular features of NextGen Gallery and how to work with them.
Create a Gallery
To create a new gallery, visit Gallery > Add Gallery / Images. Leave the Gallery dropdown to the default of "Create a new gallery". Enter a name for the gallery in the next text box.
Add Files
Click Add Files. Navigate to where the files are located on your computer and select any images you wish to add to this new gallery. Hold down the CTRL key for select non-consecutive images. Click Open once you are done selecting images.
Upload Files
Don't forget to click Start Upload after you have added them to the new gallery.
Add Images to a Gallery
Use the information above for "Creating a Gallery", except choose the name of the gallery you wish to add images to in the Gallery dropdown menu.
Manage Gallery
You can manage galleries from Gallery > Manage Galleries. Click the name of the gallery you wish to edit. Notice in the screen capture below, you can edit the:
- Gallery title
- Gallery description
- Page the gallery is linked to
- Gallery preview image
You can even create a new page, which will automatically become the page the gallery is linked to. Be sure to click Save Changes when you are done making edits to save the changes.
Manage Images
Below the section shown above, is an area to edit each image in the chosen gallery. Below is a screen capture of a single image and what can be edited.
When you hover over the image name, you will see a list of links. Two important links are: edit thumb and rotate. You can also edit the Alternate Text and Title Tag (the top text box) and the description (the bottom text box), and even add tags in a comma separated list.
Slideshow Settings
The slideshow settings are located under Gallery > Gallery Settings. Click NextGen Basic Slideshow. As you can see in the screen capture below, you can change the following:
- Maximum Dimensions
- Effect
- Interval (time each image shows)
- Image Limit (Maximum images to show in slideshow)
- Enable flash slideshow (shows flash slideshow for devices which support flash)
- Show thumbnail link (set to no to hide the slideshow)
- Thumbnail link text