Galleries are fundamentally broken

  • I’ve been looking at Gutenberg to evaluate it after the release of WP 4.9.8. I run a number of photography or photography related websites and I am very disappointed with the gallery functionality.

    In the Classic Editor in Text mode, it is SO easy to update a gallery after uploading an image and editing it – by simply copying & pasting the ID of the image into the list of ids in the gallery shortcode:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/n7zg4hpvqrxs8xl/gallery-classic-html.png?dl=0

    By comparison, the HTML view in Gutenberg is an insane mess and the option to simply paste a media ID doesn’t even exist.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ej8z1i3fne4omlm/gallery-gutenberg-html.png?dl=0

    (this is from an existing post that has been converted to blocks – both screenshots show one and the same gallery though)

    The options to edit the gallery are now split in two – the column options are part of the block options, the images itself are part of the “Edit” option for the gallery (the empty sidebar in that screen screams for the block options to be added back there). I’m not sure if that’s more intuitive than in the Classic Editor.

    I work with galleries multiple times per day on a number of photography related websites, and Gutenberg turns my workflow into a click-orgy, or plainly breaks it. Is there a workable solution to this yet?

    At this point, I have deactivated Gutenberg and returned to the Classic Editor. I do see the potential in Gutenberg, but the way it is right now, I wonder if it will ever be as efficient as the Classic Editor is right now.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • @antermoia Looking at all those comment tags around the gallery don’t make it workable for your use case any more.

    Agree being able to flip back and forth between the visual and code view is important and one of the aspects of editing in WordPress, the text tab in TinyMCE, which has needed some attention for a long time.

    Having introduced code mirror recently, it needs to be developed further and pushed into more corners of WordPress. It is present in the HTML block but would be even more useful in the code view which needs to be more easily reached at any given time, wether that is just selectively the html in each block or a complete overview of the whole page.

    Even making the code view on par with what you see in CodePen by making it a fully immersive IDE experience, with all the associated features, would be welcome. If it were possible to have a way to hide the comment tags, it would go a long way to making it more user friendly.

    Are you still using JIG, Alexander? I’m looking forward to developing Gutenberg compatibility and will take into account retaining manual edit mode.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Firsh.
    Thread Starter Alexander S. Kunz

    (@antermoia)

    Yes, I’m still using it, mostly for my archive pages and portfolio galleries.

    In normal posts (when it’s not too many photos) I often just use a single-column gallery because it looks equally good on mobile and desktop. I like the flexibility of having both options.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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