A year or so ago, Elfling — DK staff member, help desk angel, all-around system guru, and above all, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed — explained in a comment how we could better insert and display detailed graphic images in our diaries. Unfortunately, most people probably did not see that comment and we see lots of great graphics that are displayed at sizes too small for them to be truly useful.
The subject came up again today in another diary, one with some excellent graphics that were sadly too small to see clearly. So, I am going to elaborate on Elfling’s idea and provide a step-by-step guide to the process of Making Graphics Great Again (MGGA, not to be confused with MAGA which is a pile of horse manure).
Step 1: Choose an image
This first step has two options: you can use an image that is already in the DK Image Library or you can upload an image to the library from your computer (be sure that you have permission or that the image is in the public domain or that it is Creative Commons licensed).
Whichever one you do, you first need to click the Image Library icon in the editor.
That will open a dialog box for the Image Library where you can choose to upload an image or use one that you or another member already uploaded in the past.
If you upload an image to the library, be sure to enter the relevant information in the fields of the right-hand column. That will help others who may also wish to use the image someday in another story. You may enter some tags for the image so that others can easily search for it but at a minimum you should complete the following fields:
- Attribution: the artist, photographer, or copyright holder of the image
- License: generally that would be “Use anywhere, w/ attribution” if you upload public domain or Creative Commons-licensed images
- Description: along with a few words about who, what, or where the image is, I usually put in the URL (internet address) where I found the image. That helps people verify that the licensing is correct and also gives credit to the person or organization that published it on the internet
Whether you uploaded an image or searched the library, click the image you want to use so that it is highlighted with a thick orange frame around it, then click Choose to insert it into your story.
Step 2: Position the image
By default, an image is placed on the right-hand side of your story and sized to take up about half of the width of the text area. You can change both the position and the size, within certain rules.
- Images placed on the right or left are sized to a bit less than 50% of the text area
- Images centered on the page are sized larger, to approximately 80% of the text area
To change the horizontal position, click on the image and it will turn light blue, showing that it has been selected. Then click one of the alignment icons (left, center, right) in the editor, highlighted in a red box in the screenshot below.
When the image is selected, you can also change its vertical position. For example, you might decide you prefer the image to be in another paragraph higher or lower on the page. Click the “mover box” at the top left corner of the image and hold the mouse button down while you drag the image higher or lower on the page.
Step 3: Add a caption
When composing or editing your diary, there is a thin orange line below the images you place in it. If you click just above that line, you can type a caption to provide the reader with more information, deliver a punch line, or to add an extra feature — a way to view the image full size.
Let’s see how it looks with the image that I selected for the title image of this diary. I browsed the image library, searching for the term “chart” to find something that looked fairly detailed and complex as an example for the story. See how it looks on the page using the default settings.
Ack, that’s horrible. Sure, the image looks like it’s something important and we could put a brilliant caption with it but nobody will ever know if the content really is terrific or not: it’s way too small to actually read any of the details.
Step 4: Put a link in the caption to show the image full size
Most images are fine with the reduced sizes of left/right or center alignment. After all, if we see Donald Trump’s mug on the page, do we really want to be able to click to see it in huge and ghastly splendor? But some graphics — like charts, maps, tables, and such — pack a lot of critical information and detail which will be lost to the reader at less than the full original size.
Along with whatever you write in your caption, you can include a clickable link that will open a new tab in the browser that will display the original image.
Right-click on the image and your browser should show a menu with various options, one of which will be to copy the image’s address. Each browser has its own wording so it might say “Copy image URL” or “Copy image link” or something similar. Select the appropriate menu choice to copy that link into your computer’s memory temporarily.
Go to your caption and add something like “Click to enlarge image.”
Highlight the phrase you just typed in the caption and click the hyperlink icon in the editor.
In the URL field of the dialog box, press Ctrl-V to paste the image address that you copied earlier (or whatever key combination your computer uses to paste). Before saving, you need to edit the address (hyperlink) just a bit.
It normally has the word “large” in it, as the next-to-last bit of the address, separated by slash marks. Unfortunately, trying to type in the valid address here makes the editor display the image rather than the text of the address! So, it will look something like this but it will have http://images.dailykos.com/ at the beginning: images/328905/large/2016-Election-7-State-HRC-analysis-chart2.png?1479409061.
Look for the word “large” in the address. You need to edit that and replace “large” with “original” so that the link goes to the full size image. After editing, it will look like this (but with the preceding http:// bit that I mentioned previously): images/328905/original/2016-Election-7-State-HRC-analysis-chart2.png?1479409061.
Save the hyperlink by clicking the Insert Link button. The phrase you typed in the caption (I like “Click to embiggen”) will now be an active link. If the reader clicks it, a new tab will open in the browser with the full-sized original image. Most browsers have keyboard, mouse, or menu commands that will let the user zoom in or out and explore the image in detail.
Now that terrific chart or graph or map will really be useful in your diary. Doing this adds a bit of effort for you as a writer but it adds a huge amount of usability for the reader. Here’s the final result so you can give it a try and “embiggen” the chart.
Suggestion: you might want to bookmark this diary for future reference in case you find yourself using a graphic that needs to be seen at its original size.