*** Updated ***

Well, ok … it’s not a hidden tag, but it is a feature many of us aren’t aware of in WordPress.

I have seen many people on Twitter asking for a good Gallery plug-in for WordPress. Our choice for a plug-in would be NextGen. But, it occurred to me that many people don’t realize that WordPress has this feature built in already. It’s not the prettiest or the coolest gallery I have seen. But it does the job in a pinch.

The setup for a gallery is very easy. And inserting it into a post or page is done with a “shortcode”.

First, start a new post and give it a title. Then, using the Media Toolbar, add in your images. The Media Toolbar is that row of icons just above the editing area start with “Upload/Insert”. Click on the first icon to open the Media Uploader.

I have trouble with the Flash Uploader so I use the Browser Uploader.

I upload my image, and select the options I want for that image. DO NOT click on “Insert into Post”. ONLY click on the “Save all changes” button. Your image will then be added to the Gallery and this will be reflected in the Media windows tabs.

Add as many pictures as you want, always clicking on “Save all changes”. You will see the number of images in your gallery increase. After uploading and clicking the correct button to save, you are always taken to the gallery tab. After you have uploaded you last image, select the option you want for your gallery. When you’re finished, click on “Insert Gallery”.

You should now see a Gallery shortcode appear in your post similar to the following:
[gallery link="file" orderby="post_name"]

You can also assign your own tags for enclosing the various elements of the image gallery. I have select tags to enclose my items, thumbnails and captions.
[gallery link="file" orderby="post_name" itemtag="div" icontag="span" captiontag="p"]

Here is my result (courtesy of Matt Stuart):

There is more about this shortcode in the WordPress Codex.

Update: We have found a Lightbox plugin for this WordPress Gallery code as well. You can get the plugin here. We have been very pleased with this plug-in as it gives your site that extra needed level of professionalism for photo galleries in WordPress. Have a look at our implementation of this WordPress Lightbox Gallery Plug-in.

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