We told you it was coming, and now it's here. Our fabulous new image uploader and image library will make inserting images into your posts a breeze. You don't have to know HTML; you don't have to use Flickr or any of those other photo hosting sites. Just upload images from your computer using our uploader and embed them right into your diary.
And that's not all. You can use images other people upload too. Want to find out how? Here's an instructional video:
Using the Images Function on Daily Kos from dailykos on Vimeo.
If videos aren't your thing, the step-by-step instructions are below the fold.
First, let's cover the basics of using the Image Uploader.
This appears below the Welcome Back box.
- Create a new diary or open the edit view of an existing draft.
- To upload a new image from your computer, click "Upload files" in the Image Queue, or drag and drop the image from your computer into your Image Queue. The image will appear in your Image Queue. Upload original, uncompressed images as the image uploader will create resized and compressed embeddable versions automatically. A good rule of thumb: photos should be in jpeg format, and illustrations should be pngs.
- Metadata from the image file will be imported automatically, when available. Enter missing meta data for the image in the fields provided:
- Attribution. This is the photographer and/or original source of the image. Some examples: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters; Wikimedia Commons; Pete Souza/White House; Dreamstime; Library of Congress. If you took the picture or created the image, list yourself for the attribution.
- License. This setting lets other users know whether and how the image can be used by others. DO NOT UPLOAD IMAGES IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE PROPER PERMISSIONS.
- Daily Kos use only (the image can be used by anyone on Daily Kos, but only on Daily Kos);
- My use only (it will not be visible in the image library to anyone but you, and only you can use it);
- Use anywhere w/ attribution (anyone on Daily Kos can use your image on or off the site). This is for images in the public domain.
The metadata fields for a queued image.
- Description. This gives a description of the image so that other users will be able to find it by searching for key words (i.e., "Mitt Romney"). It also embeds information for our blind readers so that they have a description of the image if they can't see it, so be literally descriptive. Many sites already offer descriptions for images (Wikimedia Commons, Reuters, Whitehouse.gov, Library of Congress) so you can simply copy and paste that description into the field.
- Location. This information is not necessary unless it is relevant. For example, an official portrait of the president does not require location information. However, a picture taken at Occupy Wall Street should include the location ("Wall Street, New York, NY") so that other users can find it by searching "New York." Anything that Google maps can recognize as a valid location will work. For example: "Golden Gate Bridge"; "Oakland, CA"; "Ashby and Shattuck, Berkeley CA"; et cetera. Image files from phones will often already have location data in the file—this will be imported automatically.
- Tags. Just like tags used for diaries, this provides another way users will be able to easily search for images.
- Once you have entered all of the meta data, you can embed the image in your draft by clicking "Embed in story." You will get a pop-up box that allows you to choose whether the image should be aligned left, right or center. It will automatically resize the image. You can also add a caption that will appear below the image. Click "Embed image," and the image code will appear at the very top of the Intro box of your diary. You can then cut and paste the code so the image will appear elsewhere in the diary.
- Voila! You have now successfully uploaded your image to the image library.
Now, about using that image library ...
Ever seen an image somewhere else on Daily Kos that you'd like to use? A picture of Barack Obama, maybe, or one of those hilarious images we've made—say, the Goposaur in heels (my personal favorite)? Well, now you can! Because it's all right there is our new Image Library.
The cursor over the image shows you the image ID and allows you to queue it for your diary.
- Create a new diary or open the edit view of an existing draft.
- Click on Image Library in your Image Queue box. The Image Library box will pop up, showing you, by default, every image uploaded by every user. You can click “My Images” if you want to see only images you have uploaded.
- Use the search box in the top right corner to search for images. You can search by attribution; tag; filename; location; and owner (the person who uploaded the image). For example, to search just for images created by Jed Lewison, type "Attribution: Jed Lewison" in the search box. Or you can simply type any key words in the search box to search all the meta fields of every image in the library.
- Once you have found an image you want to use in your diary, hover your cursor over that image and click "Add to queue." You can click and add multiple images at a time to the Image Queue for your diary.
- Once you have queued all the images you may want to use for your diary, click the "x" at the top right corner of the pop-up box to close it and return to the diary draft.
NOTE: These images are not added to your diary yet. They are added to the Image Queue for your diary. In order to embed them in your diary, click "Embed in Story" for each image you want to add to your diary. Remember that the image code will be inserted at the very top of the Introduction box. You can then cut and paste the code so the image(s) will appear where you want them in the diary.
Congratulations! You are now a Daily Kos image uploading pro. It's fun, it's easy, and even if you don't know anything about HTML and images and all that fancy talk, you can still make your diaries pop with pictures.
Of course, in order to use these super cool new tools, you must be a Daily Kos subscriber. Eventually, all users will be able to use the uploader; however, the library (the ability to use images uploaded by others) will only be available to Daily Kos subscribers. That's right—a perk of being a Daily Kos subscriber is getting to beta test our super cool new Image Uploader and Image Library.
You can subscribe here.