I’ve just completed a 2 year project (from RFI to content migration to launch) and one fly in the ointment is threatening to bring it all down around my head.
It’s a massive project with 28 connected external sites for parishes that will grow into a total of 97. The largest of the 28 is our 500-page, 16-department behemoth. So far, departments is thrilled to be able to add and edit their content. There have been a few bumps in the road and I still have to train everyone, but the launch has been smooth. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase “It’s so easy.” That is until I released it to the news division. And, as luck would have it, that’s the division I report to on this project.
During all of these months of planning, the idea of needing to add captions to photos never came up. So, both the developers and I were unprepared for the depths (and loudness) of their unhappiness. They are coming from a Word Press world where all they needed to do is right click on a picture to add a perfect caption or cutline as they call it.
Our developers haven’t yet been able to solve the problem. Sure, they’ve given us two different sets of bootstrap caption code, but neither is easy to use and neither has been especially responsive on mobile devices. Plus, it’s code. The beauty of this project is that no one was supposed to have to work in the code.
I don’t claim to understand the problem. We click a button and it inserts a picture on the page…there is just no field for cutlines. When I ask them if they can add it, they said they bought the module and can’t edit it. I don’t know if the module they refer to is the “insert image” portion or if it’s the entire ribbon of text formatting tools. Another blow-up from the news division occurred on Friday. I’ve reported it to the developers and their going to spend some time looking for alternatives but they are saying they haven’t found any modules that include captions.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. Can anyone out there help? I need some way for non-coders to click a button that will insert an image, let them add alt text, allow them to enter a style that allows for floating text around the image and above all lets us add a responsive cutline.
By way of feeble description of our environment, some of the site is php but it’s the html pages giving us image fits. I know everything is wrapped in a CSS. When I’ve needed to do more complicated things outside of the module, they’ve sent me bootstrap code so that’s probably important for you to know.
This project has left me feeling sometimes proud, sometimes bruised. When they yell, I wonder if all the overtime and worry was worth it. I really thought the stress was going to be over. I never saw this problem coming. I’d really like to see it in my rearview mirror.