Some people are having problems inserting, resizing and formatting images in the new InfoBarrel editor. Part of the problem is because it works a little differently than the previous version of the InfoBarrel editor, and part of the problem is that currently image editing does not work right on some browsers. Here is the information you need to know to make images work the way you want in the new editor.

You can edit an existing article to insert an image that was not previously there, or you can resize and move an image that was previously in the article. Do this by choosing the article you need to edit. If you are creating a new article then go through the normal steps to get to the point where you are typing or pasting in your text for the new article. If this is an existing article then click on the Edit link at the top of the Text Element you need to alter. If this is a new article, then click on the Edit link to begin the new Text Element.

My preference is to do everything in one Element like in the old editor. I have not figured out what the advantage of using individual elements is. It introduces anomalies in the way the article is displayed--which might be fixed in the future with some code updates by the administrators. You will not need to create a new element just for your pictures. You can add them right into the Text Element along with your main article.

Up to the top right of the article editor is a box that says Available Media.

To insert a new image into the article, click on the Upload button. A dialog box will show up in which you can choose the image to be uploaded. Once the image is chosen give it a title using the Title box. You can also put in the name of the photographer in the Credit box. Then click the Upload button at the bottom of that dialog box (not to be confused with the Upload button you hit initially to start the process).

A new dialog box replaces the previous one which confirms that your image was uploaded. Now you are able to click the link to upload another image, or get ready to pull the image into your article.

The Shiny Bean in ChicagoCredit: dpeachOnce you are done uploading all of your images, then you want to click the button that says Article in the Available Media box. In that area you will find the image or images you uploaded for the article. You could also choose the All button to pull in other images you previously uploaded. This makes it easy to reuse images from your other articles.

Now simply click on the image and drag it into place on your article. Depending on which browser you are using, this may or may not work like you expect. I am using Chrome and find that this now creates an image that takes up the whole editing box. If you are using another browser you may be able to grab the corner of the image and resize it the way you want.

To resize the image in Chrome you must first left click on the image and then right click it and choose Insert/edit image. This will bring up a dialog box where you can edit all the information about the image. For our purposes you want to choose the Appearance tab. You have a choice of setting the alignment of the image with the drop-down list, or you can align it after you resize it. If you do choose one of the alignment options, the box to the right will show how your image will be placed within the text around it. In the Dimensions boxes choose one of the dimensions and put in a size. These are sizes in pixels and I always type in a number in the width between 200 and 250 to start with (the picture of the Shiny Bean above has a width of 220 pixels). You can adjust those numbers up or down as you see fit.

Leave the Constrain proportions box checked. This will allow you to define width or height and have the other automatically adjust properly.

Select Update. You will get a dialog box saying that you should give the image a description. You really should. I don't always do it though. By giving the image a description Google will pick up on that text and show your image in image searches. Some people have reported significant portions of their AdSense income from their images.

If you did not choose your alignment option in the dialog box, you can choose it now by first left clicking the image and then right clicking it. This time choose Alignment and select the alignment option you want. If you resized the image by clicking and dragging on one of the corners, you can align it using these steps without having to go into the Insert/edit image dialog box.

Make sure you spend time in the Insert/edit image dialog box. You will see all the different information you can set about an image. The Title is used by screen readers for the visually impaired to tell them what the image contains. You can also set a URL to link the image to another page.

Here are some of my thoughts on images. I almost always align them to the right. It makes it easier to read. I always move the image to the start of a paragraph. If the image was inside a paragraph and you moved it, you may have a break in your pargraph text. Insert your cursor where needed and remove the artificial carriage return.

If you want to make your image a link to the resource page, or use it as one of your external links, that is possible too. Left click on the image and then right click on it. This will give you the context menu. Choose Insert/edit link. Then you can type or paste in the URL of the place you want the link to go. For example, I made the Shiny Bean picture link to the media resource page for the image. The easiest way to do that is to publish the article and then click on the picture at the bottom of the article. That is automatically linked to the media resource page. Copy the URL in your browser and then edit your article again to be able to make the image link to the resource page. This did not work for me in Chrome, but works fine in Firefox. Follow all the normal link building tips you would for regular links.

I was careful in the text to tell you to left click the pictures before right clicking them. If you do not then you will be adjusting the properties of the text and not the picture you are working with.

Any other questions? Post them in the comments below and I will work to update this article if it is general in nature or answer the question in the comments if it is more specific.