WordPress Image Captions Using FCKEditor Plugin

The default WYSIWYG editor that comes bundled with WordPress leaves much to be desired. So it is often necessary to upgrade the editor to something more fully-featured, such as the FCKEditor. However, there is one problem with using something other than the default editor. Some features, such as the new image captions released in version 2.5 are missing. So how does one go about adding image captions using the FCKEditor?

Introducing the Velvet Blues Image Captions Plugin

This plugin automatically creates captions for your images based on the text used in the image’s alt (alternative text) tag. And it works out of the box with all WordPress themes built for versions 2.5+. For other themes, you will have to see the additional instructions below.

Download the Image Captions Plugin

Current Version: 1.0

Compatible up to WordPress version 2.7

Features

• Automatically adds captions to images according to the caption styles in your theme
• Optionally edit the plugin’s CSS files to override your theme’s caption styles

Installation

• Download the plugin and unzip.
• Put the velvet-blues-image-captions folder in your wp-content/plugins folder.
• Activate the plugin through the Wordpress admin.

Themes for WordPress 2.3 and Lower

For themes that were created for versions of WordPress 2.3 and lower, you probably don’t have CSS styles which determine the way your captions look. So you will need to activate this plugin’s stylesheet. In the plugin folder, you will find a file called vbic.css. Open the file, delete the two lines that say "DELETE THIS LINE TO ACTIVATE STYLES", and save. Upload the revised files to the plugin folder in your plugin directory.

Uninstallation

To uninstall, simply deactivate the plugin. Since the plugin does not add any HTML to your posts, there will be no leftover captions or data to deal with.

Usage

1. Define captions by adding some text to your images’ alt attributes. In FCKEditor, you can do this by adding text in the field marked Alternative Text.
2. Set the alignment of the image — left, right, center — by choosing an option from the align select menu.

If you don’t want a caption to be displayed, don’t set the alt attribute. No other work is needed to display or hide captions.

FAQs

1. Why aren’t captions showing up? Verify that you have added caption text to your image’s alt attribute, and make sure that the plugin has been activated.
2. Is my theme compatible? Your theme should be compatible with the plugin if it was created for WordPress 2.5 and up. However, if your theme is not compatible, you can make this work by editing the CSS file as explained above under installation.
3. Why are images not displaying in the right position? The plugin determines where to display the image based on the content of the align attribute. So when inserting your images, be sure to set ‘left’, ‘right’, etc…

To Do

• Add admin panel for easy manipulation of caption styles
• Get hosted by WordPress.org? Probably not.

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Support

For help with this plugin or suggestions, leave a comment below.