By default, the plugin does the same thing it’s always done: when it’s activated, it moves the WordPress gallery CSS styles out of the body and into the head so it won’t break XHTML validation.

Version 2.0 gives you some additional flexibility though. There are two new options the plugin adds to Settings > Media in your your WordPress admin:

• First, there’s a check-box that lets you disable the default styles entirely so you can control the gallery styles with your WordPress theme CSS, if you prefer.
• Second, you can modify the default CSS styles to your liking right there in your WordPress admin.

Hope you like it. As always, contact me if you find any bugs or issues!

Version 1.3 re-syncs with the gallery code in WordPress 2.9 and adds support for certain WordPress 2.9 gallery features, like the ‘include’ and ‘exclude’ attributes. If you are already using the plugin, you will be prompted to upgrade within about 24 hours.

The patch I had submitted (a long, long time ago now) to WordPress is floating out there in the ether un-used, which is disappointing. I’m going to work on getting a new and improved version of the plugin put together and then submit another patch using that code, hopefully with more success!

WordPress shouldn’t produce invalid XHTML! You shouldn’t need a plugin to fix this!

Version 1.2 of the plugin fixes an issue that caused WordPress to ignore users’ gallery settings for ‘Link thumbnails to…’ when the plugin was active. This is the issue that originally prompted me to contact the original author.

In addition, version 1.2 updates the plugin’s author link information and other bits to point to me.

You can download the plugin from my info page (linked above), the WordPress plugin directory, or through your WordPress automatic plugin updater (which should pick it up within the next 12 hours).

Please contact me if there are any problems!

PS: Since the ultimate goal is to get this issue fixed for real instead of requiring a plugin, I’ve submitted a patch to WordPress. We will see if it gets included :-).

Since I’m a stickler for my site passing XHTML validation, and the way WordPress handles image galleries doesn’t validate, I was very happy to stumble upon Matt Martz’s WordPress plugin called ‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head’. This plugin rearranges where WordPress puts the gallery style code and permits WordPress galleries to pass XHTML validation.

Well, I discovered a small issue with the plugin, figured out what was happening, figured out how to fix it, and offered my patch to the author. He promptly wrote me back to say that he was planning to discontinue the plugin, and asked if I’d be interested in taking ownership of it. So—as Matt announces on his site—I am now the owner of the ‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head‘ WordPress plugin (which can also be found in the WordPress Plugin Directory). Go figure!

My future plans for the plugin are pretty simple. First, I’m going to try and get a minor release out in the next week or two to address the small issue that led to this whole thing ;-). That is assuming that I figure out exactly how this whole WordPress Plugin Directory works (bear with me; I’m learning). Second, I’m going to try and keep it working properly with any new WordPress releases until XHTML validation is fixed on galleries.

As a related side project, I’m going to try and develop a real solution in the WordPress code base and see if I can’t get a patch for it into their next release (I already have an open bug for this issue). It’s about time I started actually contributing to some of these larger open source products I use every day, right?

Lastly, I’ve discovered that my site is not well oriented for any sort of active software project…there really isn’t a good way with my current writing-oriented navigation structure to have blog-style updates and a static ‘home page’ all tied to a single piece of software. Once again, I’ll ask you to bear with me. I’ll be doing some rework on some of my menus, categories, and tags over the next week or two to handle this project better on the site (and allow for taking on new software projects in the future). In the short term, you’ll find the plugin under ‘Miscellaneous > Web & Software > Gallery Shortcode Style to Head’.