Weaver Xtreme has a couple of features that make creating a Photo Blog easy. The three main features to help with creating a photo blog include:

1. Multi-column blog layout. Weaver Xtreme free version allows you to display your blog entries in up to 3 columns. Weaver Xtreme Plusmakes this even better by including support for the Masonry dynamic layout feature which will squeeze your posts as close together as possible in up to 5 columns.

   You can specify the column layouts either globally from the Main Options -> Post Specifics tab, or on a Per Page basis if you are using the Page with Posts template using the Per Page option box on the page editor.

2. The Compact “Post Format” Posts option will make each post formatted using one of several “Post Formats” display in a compact form. For Photo Blogging, this option is especially useful for the Image Post Format. By default, the Image Post Format will show the first image from your post with a different post info line. But compact display option makes the “Image Post Format” display only the first image found in a post with no borders, no margins, no excerpt, and no extra text of any kind – just a plain image. That image links to the post’s single page view. If there is no image, then the text content of the post will be displayed. This allows you to include short descriptive text between your images if you need. Other post formats have similar compact versions.
3. Page with Posts – this Weaver Xtreme page template allows you to show your posts as a blog anywhere you like, and include filtering and other per page options that you can fine tune to make a great looking Photo Blog.

Hints

Here are some hints for creating a Photo Blog:

• First, bulk load all your photos into the media library. You might want to update the photo title, alt, caption, and description fields when you upload, although you can do that later.
• For each photo you want in your blog, create a separate post. Give the post a description of each photo. It is probably best to have a separate post per photo. When you add the image to the post, remember to select you want the image linked – either to the raw image that displays the image only in your browser, or as an attachment that will display the image full size on a standard site page.
• Be sure to check the “Image” radio button for the post found in the Format box at the right side of the Post Editor page. (If the Format box isn’t showing, open the “Screen Options” in the upper right and check the appropriate box.)
• You will also likely find it useful to assign a Category to each post. You can use categories to organize different “albums”, and then use a Page with Posts template’s filters to display each album on a separate page. You can also use the categories to filter out images from your regular blog.
• Enable the Compact “Post Format” Posts option. This will show your images in a good looking, image only format on your blog pages. You can set this globally from the Images -> Post Specific section, or you can set it on a Per Page basis from the per page options box on a Page with Posts page.
• Each post can contain as much information as you like. As you add each image, you have the opportunity to fill in a caption, title, and alt tag. You can also add whatever commentary you like to the image. You can have as many images as you want on a post, but only the first one is displayed on the blog view.
• If you’d like some text mixed in with all your images on the blog view, you can easily accomplish that by creating a text-only Image Format post. You can use these comments to separate subjects, years, or anything else you might want.
• Display your Image posts using multi-column layout. If you have Weaver Xtreme Free Version, you can display your images in up to three columns. You can set the globally for all blog pages, or use the Per Page setting for a Page with Posts. You photos will be displayed as an image only organized in columns, laid out row by row, left to right. Whenever a visitor clicks an image, it will option the post’s single page view.
• If you want even cooler photo layouts, upgrade to Weaver Xtreme Plus, and you will have access to the Masonry blog post layout feature. When enabled, Masonry will pack all your posts on a blog page in up to five columns, and remove all vertical space between posts with uneven height – no need for plain row by row layout. Masonry will work with standard blog posts, but works especially well with the compact image posts.
• When you use Masonry, you also have the option to specify on a Per Post basis that a post should span two columns (available on the Per Post options box on the post editor). This is especially useful to have your horizontally oriented images cover two columns. You can even specify this for regular posts for ones you might want to cover two columns.
• Typically, a blog page will display only a few posts (10 is typical) before adding paging. The number of posts to display on a blog page is a global setting found on the Settings -> Reading tab. If you are displaying many photos in a compact format, you will want to show many more than just 10. There is an option included on the Page with Posts per page filter section that will allow you to set how many posts to show on one page.
• Remember, using Weaver Xtreme‘s Page with Posts template, you can create multiple blog pages on your site – standard text posts, photo posts, and any other kind of set of posts you can imagine – all by setting the appropriate filters on the Per Post option page.

Custom Post Info Lines