The photo you see on the right is a THUMBNAIL. When you click on it, you will be able to view the full-size version. Here is how you can upload/customise your thumbnails.
When you install your WordPress blog you can upload a photo by clicking on the ‘upload/insert’ button. (It usually has a picture of a camera or a mock photo. I’m going to do all instructions using the WordPress Weaver II theme, because that’s the theme I like for my blogs.)
A screen will pop up asking you to locate the image on your computer, and it also lets you add captions and choose the SIZE of the image in your blog.
If your photo is 2 or 3 megabytes in size, I recommend that you FIRST re-size the image on your computer (use something like IRFANVIEW or PHOTORAZOR) so that you can see the photo clearly, but it won’t take up huge amounts of space. (800 X 600 is a good size).I use Irfanview to (1) resize an image and then (2) save it for the web, which reduces the file size considerably.
To generate a thumbnail, just upload the 800X600 image (or whatever size you choose) and choose ‘thumbnail’ in the upload window. If someone wants to see the original size, they just click on the thumbnail pic in your blog.
Choosing the Dimensions of Your Thumbnail
On the screenshot above, you can see that the thumbnail dimensions are 200 X 133. This is because I went into WordPress Settings and set the thumbnail size as 200 X 200. (This is large enough for people to see some detail.)
However, I didn’t want the photo to be cropped to a 200 X 200 square. I wanted the thumbnail to be resized PROPORTIONALLY. So I made sure I UNchecked the box that said “Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions (normally thumbnails are proportional)”.
To set the size of your thumbnails (and also the size of your medium/large photos, if you wish) do this:
- In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings > Media.
2. The default settings are 150 X 150 for thumbnails, and the ‘constrain settings’ box is checked. You can change the size of the thumbnails on your site, and choose to have a perfect square or to allow them to be resized proportionally.
3. Change the thumbnail size to whatever you want. Remember to uncheck the ‘crop thumbnail’ box if you don’t want your photo cropped to a square.
4. Click the ‘save changes’ button.
That’s it!
Marg 