How to create Gallery in WordPress using NextGEN Gallery Plugin

Posted on October 11th, 2021

The NextGEN Gallery plugin is one of the powerful gallery plugins of WordPress. The plugin allows you to display galleries with various options. Also, the free version provides two main styles: a slideshow and a thumbnail gallery. However, you will have many different design styles in the premium version. The plugin provides two album styles, compact and extended. It provides highly customizable options like Controlling size, style, and transactions. The plugin also has a function for timing and controls.

It provides Lightbox support. Also, it has customizations options for displaying the galleries and effects. The premium version has various advanced features, which are very useful to manage the galleries and albums. It also provides eCommerce functionality to sell your images online. Then the premium plan enables image protection and image proofing too. These features will help you with the copyright issue. The plugin allows image deep linking with lightbox galleries. It also has a reliable interface that beginners can easily understand and quickly set up. The Pro Lightbox allows you to display images at full scale when opened. It also offers a hover feature that includes social sharing, titles, and descriptions. It can be controlled individually as well. The hover feature consists of multiple effects, like fade and slide up.

The pro version of the plugin provides over 19 Themely theme designs and 65 Photocrati theme designs. Moreover, you can also secure the original backups. The plugin allows you to offer image searching capabilities to your users. You can create galleries and albums on your website. It also provides an Image Comment system, which will help you to engage more visitors. This plugin also offers social sharing features, and we can sell our photos with the NextGEN pro plan. This plugin provides various designs and layouts that can be used in the galleries. Moreover, using the pro version, you can also create a simple checkout page. Also, it automatically calculates tax when users purchase your images. So, let’s discuss the basic features of this plugin in brief,

Features

  • Using the NextGEN Gallery plugin, you can create albums of different galleries. It will help you to display multiple images and media when extensive galleries are required.
  • The pro plan offers advanced features like Watermark, image proofing, Deep Linking, and many more. These features are helpful when you are selling images on an eCommerce store.
  • It provides options to show galleries in various layouts options in a free version. NextGEN Gallery plugin allows you to choose between a long list gallery or a consolidated design.
  • Image sharing is also possible with Social sharing buttons. Moreover, the plugin also allows you to send emails.
  • This plugin provides a comments section. You can turn it off if you don’t require it. However, this feature will help you to engage the visitors to your website.
  • You can also create slideshow galleries. Also, it has various designs for slideshow galleries.
  • You can upgrade to the Pro version if you want to have multiple theme designs and layouts.
  • NextGEN gallery plugin also provides full support for eCommerce functionality. Thus, it also helps you if you want to sell the images to an eCommerce store.
  • It will provide unique alternatives to your regular, everyday grid galleries. Some of them also include thumbnail galleries, list albums, and Blog style galleries.
  • The pro plan also allows you to sell your image online. Moreover, it will automatically generate the sales tax when you sell the photos.
  • It can accept payments via various popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal.
  • The Print Lab feature is available. Thus, it will help you print the images with a reputable printer.
  • This plugin also allows you to offer different coupons to increase the sales numbers if you want to sell the images online.
  • The Pro Lightbox allows you to display images at full scale when opened.
  • The hover feature includes social sharing, titles, and descriptions. That can be controlled individually as well. The hover feature consists of multiple effects, like fade and slide up.
  • You can offer your users’ image searching capabilities with smart, powerful filtering based on the tags specified for images in your galleries.
  • The plugin provides various gallery options as well – masonry, mosaic, filmstrip, film blog style, side scroll, and tiled.
  • You will also get infinite scrolling, retina images, and automated Print Fulfillment features in the pro version.

Pricing Details

The nextGEN plugin offers four paid plans – Starter, Plus, Pro and Lifetime. The Starter plan costs $24 per year and provides a license for one site. Also, this plan consists of gallery layouts, album layouts, Pro film gallery, and many more. The plus plan includes many Pro features and offers a license for three sites. This plan costs around $80 per year. The Pro plan retails for $112 per year and provides the license for five sites. This plan consists of multiple theme designs, payment gateways integrations, and premium support. Also, the lifetime plan costs $280 per year. This plan offers a license for unlimited sites and multisite premium support.

How to Install and Activate NextGEN Gallery Plugin

The installation process is very easy. You can just follow the simple steps mentioned below to install and activate the plugin.

Step 1: First, you need to log in to the WordPress admin dashboard.

Step 2: Now, you will see the option “Plugins” on the left-hand side panel of the WordPress dashboard. Click on “Plugins,” then select “Add New.”

Step 3: You will see a search bar on the top right-hand side corner of the dashboard. Search “NextGEN Gallery Plugin”.

Step 4: Now, you need to click on “Install Now.”

Step 5: After installation, you need to activate the NextGEN Gallery Plugin in order to use it on your site. Now, click on “Activate.”

Now you have successfully installed and activated the plugin. You can start adding the galleries or albums using the NextGEN gallery plugin.

How to Add gallery or Images Using NextGEN Gallery Plugin

After activating the plugin on your site, you can start using this plugin on your site. You can now start adding the galleries and images. We have explained step by step guide below on how to use this plugin,

Step 1: First, click on the “NextGEN Gallery” option n the left side panel of the dashboard, Then select “Add galleries or images”.

Step 2: Now, you will have three tabs – upload images, import from the media library, and import folder. Now, first, enter the title of the gallery to create a new gallery. After adding the title, select “Create & Select.”

Step 3: Now, click on “Browse” to upload the images into the gallery. You can also upload the zip folder into the gallery. Now, select the images from the computer in order to embed the gallery into the post or page. You can copy and paste the shortcode into the post or page.

Now, you have successfully created a gallery. You can see the gallery in the Manage galleries option on the dashboard panel.

How to Add Existing Gallery into the Page Using NextGEN Plugin

Step 1: Create a new page or post. Click on the “+” sign and search the “NextGEN Gallery” icon. Once you find it, click on “Add NextGEN Gallery.”

Step 2: You will now be directed to choose the display page. You can also customize the display settings for a particular gallery. First, click on “Choose Display.” You have to select the gallery which you have created. After that, you can select the layout to display that gallery. You will have seven layout options.

Step 3: You can go to the “Customize display settings” tab. Once you are done with the settings, you can insert the gallery.

Step 4: Now, you can Preview or Publish the page to display on the front end of the site. You will see the images in the gallery will be displayed.

Conclusion

The NextGEN Gallery is a powerful gallery plugin for WordPress. You can easily add and manage the gallery using this plugin. It provides shortcodes to embed the galleries into any page or post. Also, you will have various options for the gallery. It can accept payments via various popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. Moreover, it also lets you create a simple checkout form. However, the payment gateways options are available in the paid version.

The pro version includes image proofing and protection, infinite scrolling, and lightroom integrations as well. Moreover, you will have various theme design options from Themely and Photocrati. You can also sell the images online with many built-in features of eCommerce. The prices for paid versions are affordable as the plugin offers many options to make the galleries effective.

The installation process and setup are very easy and simple. You can follow the guide mentioned above on how to install and activate the NextGEN gallery plugin. We have also explained step by step guide on how to use this plugin. We hope this article will help you to customize the galleries for your site.

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