Support » Requests and Feedback » New media upload window could be improved

  • I like the new way media get inserted, but am not so happy with the width of the .media-sidebar (when using a larger then 1024px display)
    Most important information; like image-size, link url and other gets truncated, while in the most probable use, inserting a single image, all the space in the middle is just unused or showing images that are not relevant at that point.
    The fields to enter alt text, descriptions, etc. look like they are less important and in that way are less likely to be used.

    Now there are 3 very different ways the image information is presented, on upload, from the media lib and when using the “edit”link on the image in the editor. Every time the layout is very different.

    Just my 2cents 🙂

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 48 total)
  • I completely agree with all the main points in this thread. The new media tool seems counter-intuitive.

    It should default to Upload. The image info off in the right sidebar is a nuisance as well as having to now click out and back to set a featured image.

    I’ve also noticed that there is a hang time and I can actually watch the images load into the post. That never happened before…But the most annoying thing I’ve found is that some images don’t load at all.

    They go into the media library and onto the post but when I save the draft then preview, the caption is there but the image is not. The only solution I’ve found is to delete the image and reload. This is a huge waste of time and NEVER happened before this last update.

    I love WP and every day I learn something about it that makes my work more enjoyable but these changes to the image management really need a “do over”.

    Sapphires point about not being able to see the image urls is also significant for me for the reasons stated. I deal with many identical images and need to see that url. Not having it show up below the image is a royal pain and also slows down the workflow.

    I think the tendency to want to make everything work more like social media does a disservice to those of us who need the more techie aspects of WP to stay the way they have been.

    A few comments to add –

    1) There’s no need to click the UPLOAD FILES tab – keep it on MEDIA LIBRARY and drag in your image to upload it.

    2) If you’re frustrated at the ‘Image Title’ getting removed, and added to the ‘Alt Text’ field (which is a deliberate accessibility feature in WP3.5, not a bug), there’s a new plugin that fixes this –
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/restore-image-title/

    3) I like to think we are not just complaining cos we are resistant to change ! For me –
    – the INSERT MEDIA popup ‘modal’ window is too large, meaning the fields are too far to the side (on a 17″ 1600×900);
    – it can take a while for all the thumbnails to load (do I really need to see images from months ago by default ?) A setting that limited the number of thumbnails to 5/10/20 would be useful, as well as a slider that adjusted the thumbnail size (like Picasa);
    – as someone else reported, I occasionally get a blank grey thumbnail instead of the image – closing/re-opening fixes this (possibly caused by a glitch in internet connection ?)

    Thanks to all the WP staff for all their hard work. 🙂

    Thanks, photoMaldives, but that plugin is for something else – it makes the image’s name appear in the “title field”. We’re talking about being able to see names rather than just thumbnails in the list of photos within the media uploader.

    I actually agree with not having the image name become the title tag, and always wished WordPress would change that – I’m glad this called my attention to it, because with all the other changes I barely noticed this improvement.

    And I don’t think anyone’s just resistant to change. I was excited about the media uploader, and surprised to find a few minor issues with it that I didn’t like. I don’t feel like we’re complaining (and certainly no one has ranted or said anything nasty, which is refreshing!). We’re just giving feedback – how else can they know what everybody wants?

    BTW, one theme I’m using, which is heavily customized, somehow invokes the old media uploader instead of the new. This makes me suspect that “under the hood” things are pretty much the same, and the new window is more window dressing than actual changes in function. If so, this is good news – it means WordPress could “fix” all our problems pretty easily in a new update. At the very least, maybe they’ll give us the option to use the old media uploader – I’d be totally satisfied with that.

    And on the offchance WP doesn’t do anything for us (I’d be surprised – they’ve been very responsive to making “easy” fixes in the past), this means someone should be able to write a lightweight program that would invoke the old uploader.

    I also noticed the old uploader when I used the edit function.

    I’m all for changes that make my work flow smoother and faster. Unfortunately, I’ve found this new media tool does the opposite. I also am used to giving an image a title and then copying that title and pasting it into the other images on a post, just needing to change the #1 to 2, 3 or 4 but I find the title field now does not copy past what can be seen and won’t scroll to the end of the title name.

    If anyone knows a way around this I’d appreciate it.

    Thread Starter Webtaurus

    (@and_or)

    @alicia
    Click in the title field and ‘Ctrl + A’ works for me to select the whole title… But of course you will be working half blind if the title is very long.

    The layout of the media window is backend css, so it should not be hard to change. Just putting the labels for fields like Title, alt-text etc. above or below the input fields would allow much more width for the input boxes.

    I saw that @ipstenu (Mika the half elf / half support angel)remarked on topics about the media uploader being “noisy” so I think that indicates that our discussion is not going unnoticed, so there might be hope of someone looking into it soon.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    Angel. Heh. That’s a first.

    It is noticed, and there will be improvements. Remember, everyone on WordPress.com is using this too, so they’re taking everything into account when looking at improvements.

    For what it’s worth, the people who have a ‘too large’ issue should remember the other side, which is people on small monitors 🙂 we can’t please everyone equally.

    Thread Starter Webtaurus

    (@and_or)

    Hi Mika,

    Thanks for the confirmation… good news. It is rather mind boggling to think just how many people will be affected by a minor change in workflow, considering the proportions of the user base of WordPress.

    Screen sizes; at 1024 and 1280 width the .media-sidebar space would be used much more efficient if the labels where below the input fields, and the width of the input fields at about 90% of the .media-sidebar.

    To tell you the truth I never even thought of the people on wordpress.com sharing the same backend 🙂 Mea culpa

    Since I was one of the first people to state that I wasn’t happy with certain aspects, I should probably state that I DO like the “delete permanently” option for deleting an image. It seems easier than the old way. 🙂 Don’t want anyone to think I don’t appreciate all the work that goes into WordPress as I truly do!

    I agree with Amanda. The new delete option is much easier, and I actually like the drag-and-drop upload and gallery manager.

    However, I’d like to see these two simple changes, and my workflow would be greatly improved:
    1) Default to Upload Files instead of Media Library
    2) Default to only files uploaded to the current post after uploading images.

    Only just worked out that there might be a clash with the Smush.It plugin (to auto-compress images) – anyone else noticed this ?

    Seems to cause a grey thumbnail &/or a failed upload, even though the image shows up in MEDIA separately.

    I get the failed uploads after I save draft, and when I look at the text version the code is incomplete, so I reload the image from the text side of the editor at the bottom of the page so it’s not affected by any other code on the page then I copy and paste all that image code to where I need it to be.

    It’s a pain but it’s a feasible workaround.

    It happens randomly and I can’t find a reason why. I don’t use the Smush.it plugin.

    @webtaurus, thanks for the workaround with image titles. That helps.

    As technabob said, these two things would sort out the UX when dealing with the media:

    1) Default to Upload Files instead of Media Library
    2) Default to only files uploaded to the current post after uploading images.

    Everything else it’s great IMO.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    If you want to test some of the tweaks in 3.5.1, you can download it: http://make.wordpress.org/core/2013/01/05/call-for-testers-for-3-5-1/

    The issue with the media uploader not selecting the featured image when uploaded is fixed in 3.5.1

    Smush.it has been having reported errors so that’s very possible.

    Thread Starter Webtaurus

    (@and_or)

    i tested 3.5.1 yesterday but saw no changes in the things discussed in this thread yet… would have been a bit quick, since nothing is broken, it could just be improved.

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 48 total)
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