How to add captions to photos

image photo picture caption 2I think you would agree with me that Blogger post editor image handling left much to be desired. A simple task as adding a caption to a photo is quite a feat in Blogger, requiring you to enter the dreaded HTML zone. No wonder “how to add captions to photos” is amongst the more popular questions from Blogger users.

One of the methods to add caption to images is to use a table, as tutored in Adding a simple image caption. But that’s the hard way.

Now there is an easier option. Blogger in draft has added image caption feature. It goes like this:

  1. Log in to Blogger In Draft and go to post editor.
  2. Click on the photo and a small menu bar pops up below the photo.  image photo picture caption 1
  3. Click the Add caption link and type your caption. The caption will automatically centered below the photo. image photo picture caption 2
  4. If you want to remove the caption, simply click the picture again. The menu bar pops up, this time on top of the picture. image photo picture caption 3
  5. Click Remove caption and your caption will be gone.
  6. Now that was easy. Enjoy!

8 comments to "How to add captions to photos"

Giles Clark April 30, 2010 at 7:31 PM    

I find that photos which have been aligned either to the left or right end up in the centre when published using the captions even though they were correctly positioned when seen in preview.

When the captions are removed, the photos then go back to where I wanted them, either on the left or right.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Anyone had similar problems?

Greenlava May 2, 2010 at 2:20 PM    

@Giles Clark
Sorry for the late reply.
A text caption feature puts the caption picture inside a table. That's where the trouble starts (with your templte).
Your template has a CSS code that turns every table's width to the full width of your posts area. So no matter how you attempt to float the picture, it won't budge.
To fix it, find this code in Layout>Edit HTML:
table {margin-bottom:1.4em;width:100%;}
and delete width:100%;

Preview before saving.
p.s. there must be a reason why the code is there in the first place, but I have no idea.

Giles Clark May 2, 2010 at 7:54 PM    

Thanks for the help. It seems to have worked OK.

Much appreciated!

Abdusalaam al-Hindi May 12, 2010 at 3:51 AM    

How come I don't see the "Add Caption" option in draft mode. After "Left-Center-Right" I have "Remove". There is no "Add Caption" option.

What gives?

Greenlava May 12, 2010 at 11:02 PM    

@Abdusalaam al-Hindi
Make sure you are in http://draft.blogger.com/ (signified by blue Blogger logo, instead of orange) when doing the editing.

Richard Jenkins September 20, 2011 at 5:14 PM    

thanks for this guide. I was having issues with this so I switched my blog to a word press account because the image captioning is much easier to use.

funny chuck norris February 18, 2012 at 5:20 AM    

hm I think this caption feature may have a positive effect for seo for picture blogs, providing more text for the crawler bots..is it so?

Greenlava February 19, 2012 at 1:13 PM    

@funny chuck norris
Yes that's true...and don't forget the basics too -give the picture descriptive name and alt tag.

Post a Comment

We love to hear from you! Leave us a comment.

To ensure proper display, HTML/XML/Javascript need to be escaped first using this escape tool.