Press This & empty alt attribute for URL images problem
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I updated my Press This bookmarklet, which I use a ton. It is now forcing me to use block editor, and I cant add any URL images because they say they have an empty alt attribute. How can I go back to the classic Press This ideally? If not possible, then how to fix the empty alt attribute when adding URL images? Thanks!
Site: https://yummyummpinch.wordpress.com.
WP.com: Yes
Correct account: Yes -
Hi there,
Can you tell me how exactly you updated the bookmarklet? We haven’t made any changes to this feature since 2017, and there hasn’t been any recent changes to the bookmarklet from our end that would require you to update anything on yours.
It is now forcing me to use block editor
The classic editor was removed from the open source WordPress software when version 5.0 came out in late 2019. That software is made by the community on WordPress.org.
We use that same software here on WordPress.com, so all one-click post creation methods will go to the block editor, including the Press This bookmarklet. In other words, this is expected. If the bookmarklet was still taking you to the classic editor, it was either a very old version, or had been modified in some way we don’t support, so I’m not able to help you have that go to the classic editor again.
The classic editor can only still be accessed in one way:
* Go to My Site ->Posts
* Click Screen Options top-right, and select the Classic View option
* Once the page reloads you’ll see a drop-down on the Add New button where you can choose between the classic or block editors.In other words, you’d need to select it manually every time from the Posts screen, while both the Write button in the admin bar and Press This will go to the block editor instead.
I cant add any URL images because they say they have an empty alt attribute.
Can you tell me the steps you follow to add these images, and at which point exactly you receive the error?
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Hi Kokkieh,
Thanks so much for your response. I apologize for taking so long to respond.
I updated the bookmarklet by going to the Press This page on my owner controls while logged into the site, dragging the new PressThis button to my bookmarks and deleting my old bookmark.I thought it may need some updating because the PressThis popup window when I use it has been laggy and often struggles to load at all lately. I have definitely not updated PressThis since 2017, and possibly earlier than that, as I have been using it for many years without issue.
I like the block editor when writing standard posts, but I absolutely detest it when doing PressThis posts. I tried using the classic editor within the block editor using steps you described, but I still have the same issue, and it doesn’t change how it loads images to post.
There are actually two separate issues I am having, that are connected:
First, I go to a page I want to share to my site, click the PressThis button, and a popup box appears with the block editor. It automatically includes the web page name in the post title.
However, the classic editor did these additional things automatically, which the block editor does not: Includes a link to the shared site, includes a blurb of a quote from the first couple sentences of the site I am sharing, and pops up several pictures which the site is hosting which I can simply click and it is automatically added to the post. All of these features were extremely useful to me, and I used them every time I did a pressthis post, which was almost daily.I do not see any of the above things happening with the block editor version of press this. While it is very much a headache to manually add the above things and I hate it, it is doable to go back and forth to the shared page and the pressthis popup window and copy and paste everything over. Really, really annoying, and if there is a workaround to make all of the above happen automatically again, I would sure love to know how.
However, the one absolute game-breaker is that I cannot add images via URL at all as a workaround to the above problem. Every time, I get the “Empty alt attribute” message. This makes it so I have just given up and am at the brink of abandoning my blog completely, which is really sad because I’ve posted almost daily for at least 5-7 years. What I do:
1. While on page I want to share, I click PressThis bookmarklet. The popup posting box comes up. The only thing pre-filled is the page title.
2. I manually add the link to the page, a description or quote from the page, etc. (Sometimes I do step 3 first, and give up before even bothering to do step 2).
3. No images populate at the top from the host page for me to choose one to add to the post. I click the + in the top left to add to the post. I select IMAGE.
4. I then click “Add from URL”. I copy the url of the image file itself (not the direct link to the web page I am pressing). I paste that URL.
5. No image is displayed, instead a broken link symbol appears and the message about the empty alt attribute appears. I delete and try again, sometimes with a different image from the page I am sharing, but it doesn’t work. This happens on every different website / blog / site that I have shared from.
So, first question: Can I make the block editor automatically populate link to the site I am pressing, the first few sentences on the page I am pressing, and a pop-up that lets me quickly choose a picture from the page I am pressing, without having to open a menu? In general, the ability to do those things quickly and automatically makes my life SO SO SO much easier.
2nd question: how do I stop getting the empty alt attribute when manually adding images from a URL?
Thank you so much for your help, I am desperate for a solution!
-Emily -
Oh, another thing missing from the Press This block editor popup – easy quick options on the right which let me add categories and tags to the post. In fact, I can’t figure out AT ALL anywhere to do add these, the + menu doesn’t seem to have it.
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Thanks for all the feedback!
To answer your questions however, no and no, but I can pass that feedback on to our developers.
Just so we’re on the same page too, what is the URL of the site you’re using for this?
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