You can rarely find a website without an image gallery. Most of the sites use at least one gallery for decent reasons. A study shows that 38% of the visitors leave the website if they find its layout unattractive. So, if you want a better online career, it’s best to make your site visually captivating. Creating a WordPress gallery is one of many ways to do that.
A gallery in a WordPress theme allows you to arrange photos in rows and columns. It occupies less space on the page while providing a better and quick browsing experience to your visitors.
In this guide, we will show you how to create a gallery in WordPress. By the end of this writeup, you will be able to create one yourself easily.
Why Create a Gallery in WordPress?
As mentioned above, a photo gallery enhances the look of your website. You can display the photos in an organized manner. Moreover, a relatable photo gallery creates a better visual impression among visitors than just text.
Check out the other benefits of a gallery in WordPress below:
Benefits of Creating A Gallery In WordPress
1. Increased Visitor Engagement: Photos grab attention instantly. Your visitors will enjoy browsing your page if it has related images. This results in increased visitor engagement on your site, thus decreasing the bounce rate.
2. Organized Look: If you add photos separately, they appear one after the other on your page. This gives a rather messy and scattered look to your website. However, creating a photo gallery allows you to display the photos in a proper layout. Your visitors can browse more photos in less space.
3. Better Browsing Experience: Organized photo galleries give a professional look to your website. Your visitors can browse your page easily without scrolling through each individual photo. This results in a better browsing experience.
4. Modern Web Design: Galleries displayed in beautiful layouts are a part of modern web design.
How To Create A Gallery In WordPress
Here, we will discuss three easy methods to create a WordPress gallery.
Method 1: Creating a photo gallery in WordPress without a plugin
If you are using WordPress 5.0, you already have a built-in feature that enables you to create a gallery. This feature is known as the Gutenberg block editor. This built-in feature is basic and does not have many options. However, it gets the work done efficiently.
Here is how you can create a WordPress gallery using the Gutenberg Block Editor:
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
- Go to the Posts on the left sidebar of the admin panel.
- Select the post where you want to add a photo gallery or create a new post.
- Click on (+) at the top of the panel.
- This will take you to the Block Switcher. You can add or select a wide range of editing elements, such as text blocks, images, and headings.
- Search for “gallery” and select the Gallery block that appears.
- This will add a Gallery block to your WordPress editor.
- You can click on Upload to add new images to your WordPress. This will open the default file manager where you can browse and select the image from your computer. This will allow you to select only one image at a time. For selecting multiple images, press the Ctrl key on your keyboard.
- To add a caption to the gallery, click on the image where it says “Write caption…” as shown below.
- But if you want to select from previously uploaded images, click on Media Library instead of Upload. This will open the tab that includes all the images that you have uploaded earlier. Select the images you want.
- Once you finish selecting the images that you want, click on Create a new gallery tab located on the bottom-right corner.
- After clicking on the Create a new gallery tab, the ‘Edit Gallery’ page will open up. Here you can edit/add a new caption to your images. Then, click on the Insert gallery tab on the bottom-right corner.
- Now the post edit screen opens up with the gallery block setting panel on the right sidebar. From this panel, you can set up the number of columns per row, enable/disable the crop images section, and choose where to link your gallery.
This method is very easy, isn’t it? As easy as it may seem, this method is only a basic way to add a WordPress gallery. This method lacks many features, such as:
- Your image is either not clickable or opens up in another new tab. Your visitor has to click the back button to view the gallery again. This is not as user-friendly.
- Your gallery’s appearance entirely depends on the WordPress theme you are using. In most cases, you only get one default style for your gallery.
- You cannot organize your galleries based on tags, topics, or albums.
- WordPress does not store the gallery. So if you want to add the same gallery on the next page, you have to create the entire thing all over again.
If you want to create a WordPress gallery with a more professional look, then the next method will help.
Method 2: Using WordPress gallery plugin
Plugins are the extra code to an existing set of programs. Plugins do the same task of creating a gallery in WordPress but in less time. In this section, we will walk you through the two most popular WordPress gallery plugins. The first one is the Envira Gallery, and the second one is the Modula.
1. Envira Gallery Plugin
Envira Gallery plugin lets you create modern and fully-responsive galleries in WordPress. Envira Gallery plugin packs multiple features, such as easy image navigation, lightbox popup, professional image templates, drag and drop builder, and many more.
Here is how you can create a gallery in WordPress using the Envira Gallery plugin:
- First of all, you need to install the plugin. Check the article on how to install a WordPress plugin if you are not sure about the process.
- Login to your WordPress dashboard.
- Go to Plugin and then click on Add New.
- You will find a search bar on the top right. Type “Envira Gallery.”
- Click on ‘Install’ to install the plugin.
- Head to the Settings.
- On the left sidebar of your admin panel, you will see Envira Gallery. Click on it.
- Click on ‘Activate’ to activate the plugin.
- Once you activate the plugin, head over to the Envira Gallery section on the left panel.
- Click on Add New.
- Add a title for your gallery.
- Then click on ‘Select Files from Your Computer.’
- Select the images you want to add to your post.
- Once the images are uploaded, they will appear in the Gallery section. Scroll down for it.
- You can add a caption and title to each image.
- You can add a title to each image by clicking on the pencil-like icon above the image.
- Next, you need to click on the Configuration tab.
- From here, you can set the number of columns, enable/disable lazy loading, add captions, margins, thumbnail sizes, heights, dimensions, and many more.
- Now click on the Lightbox tab.
- From here, you can enable the lightbox popup. This feature allows your visitors to enlarge and view the images without leaving the page.
Now, you need to edit the post where you want to display your gallery. Follow the steps below:
- Click Posts on your WordPress dashboard.
- Now select the post where you want to showcase your gallery. If you want to add the gallery to a new post, click on Add New.
- Click on the (+) icon to add a new block.
- Select the Envira Gallery block from the options available.
- Doing this adds a new block in the post editor.
- Search the gallery you want to display by its name or using the dropdown icon.
- You can again edit your gallery settings from the settings panel on the right corner.
- After making the necessary edits, save the settings.
- Now your post is ready.
2. Modula Plugin
Follow the steps below to create a gallery in WordPress using the Modula plugin:
- Login to your WordPress dashboard.
- Go to Plugin and then click on Add New.
- You will find a search bar on the top right. Type “Disable Comments.”
- Click on ‘Install’ to install the plugin.
- Head to the Settings.
- On the left sidebar of your admin panel, you will see Modula. Click on it.
- Click on ‘Activate’ to activate the plugin.
- Head over to the Modula tab on the left side of the admin panel.
- Click on Add New.
- You can upload the images to your WordPress gallery.
- Give a title and a caption to each image.
- Click on the pencil-like icon on top of each image to add title to it.
- Once you are done uploading and adding title/caption to the images, click on ‘Save’ on the bottom right corner.
It is time to add the gallery to the post now. Follow the steps below:
- Click Posts on your WordPress dashboard.
- Now select the post where you want to showcase your gallery. If you want to add a gallery to a new post, click on Add New.
- Click on the (+) icon to add a new block.
- Select the Modula block from the options available.
- This will add a new block to the post editor.
- Search the gallery you want to display.
- Click on ‘Create a new gallery’ tab on the bottom right corner.
- Tweak the settings from the ‘Settings’ section.
- Save the changes.
- Your post is now ready.
Other Alternative Plugins
Below is a list of five alternative plugins to create a gallery in WordPress:
- Set up your WordPress gallery using multiple unique layouts.
- Mixes videos and images within the same gallery.
- Lightbox effect.
- Multiple widgets.
- Multiple image layouts for WordPress gallery.
- Multiple effects for your images.
- Automatic resizing of the images.
- Mobile-friendly galleries.
- Allows images and videos in the same gallery.
- Sell your products on WooCommerce straight from the gallery.
- Multiple image layouts for your gallery.
4. Responsive Lightbox and Gallery
- Mobile-friendly galleries.
- Three unique image layouts
- Lightbox settings.
- Multiple transition effects.
- Enables images sorting based on various criteria.
- Enable/Disable Lazy loading.
Method 3: Using WordPress Gallery Widget
Apart from the above two methods, you can also create a WordPress gallery using the widget. For this method, follow the simple steps below:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard.
- Click on Appearance.
- Go to Widgets and click on Gallery.
- Drag the Gallery widget to your footer, sidebar, or wherever you prefer.
- This widget will let you add images to your WordPress gallery.
- Add the title and caption for the images.
- Save the adjustments once you are done. You will see your gallery on the front end now.
Wrap Up
Creating a gallery in WordPress isn’t that tricky, once you figure out the correct method. We have included three easy steps that anyone can follow.
If you are new to WordPress, using the built-in feature will do the trick. However, if you want to take the step up to an advanced level, plugins and widgets are your best bet. Using plugins, you can add multiple images at once, add various effects, sort images, and much more.
Either way, you can create your WordPress gallery with ease.
Which method suits you the best? Let us know in the comment section down below:
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