Images, GIFs and stock photos (the media library)

Every picture your club uploads or chooses is kept in your media library, so you never need to upload the same photo twice. When you add a picture in the block editor, a window opens with four tabs, in this order:

1. Upload: an image from your computer.

2. Your library: anything your club has uploaded or chosen before.

3. GIFs: animated GIFs from GIPHY.

4. Stock photos: free photos from Unsplash (or Pexels).

Managers and admins can add and remove images.

The window opens only in the block editor, which is where you write a message and the text sections (Text, Image and text and Contact) of a website page. It opens when you:

• type / and choose Image;

• choose Choose image on an empty picture spot (for example, one the writing assistant left for you);

• choose Replace on a picture;

• choose Add pictures on a gallery, or pick Gallery from the / menu.

You can also drag a picture from your computer straight into the text, or paste one. It uploads and is added to Your library without opening the window, and without a description. See Writing with the block editor.

The picture boxes of a website page's Banner, Image and text and Photo gallery sections don't open this window. They upload a picture from your computer directly (see Your club's website). Those pictures are added to Your library too, but without a description.

Choose an image from your computer, or drag it onto the window. PNG, JPEG, GIF and WEBP files up to 5 MB work. Before it uploads, there is a box to describe the image: one short sentence such as "Swimmers lined up for the relay". The box starts empty. People who use screen readers hear that description, it is how you find the picture later in Your library, and it is how the writing assistant knows what the picture shows.

Describe the picture when you upload it. A picture's description in Your library can't be changed later. A description you type on a picture in a message or page stays with that one picture there; it doesn't change the library.

When the window opens for a gallery, it says Add pictures, and choosing a picture selects it instead of closing the window. Selected pictures show a check mark and collect at the bottom of the window, from any tab: Your library, GIFs, Stock photos and uploads. To take one out, choose it again or use the small × on it at the bottom. When you're done, choose Add (for example, Add 3 pictures).

A gallery block holds up to 12 pictures, so the window stops you when it's full. (A website page's Photo gallery section is different: it holds up to 24 photos, each added with its own picture box.)

On the Upload tab you can choose or drag several files at once. Each one gets its own description box; Upload sends them one after another and selects each as it arrives.

Your library shows your club's images newest first. Type in the search box to find an image by its description, and use Load more to see older ones. Choose an image to use it. A picture with no description shows "No description" and can't be found by searching.

Remove asks first, then takes an image out of your library so it is no longer offered here. It does not change anything that already shows the image: a published page, a sent email, or a draft that uses it keeps showing it.

Search for a GIF with a word or two ("cannonball", "high five"), then choose one. Only GIFs rated suitable for all ages are shown. A GIF you choose is added to Your library.

Animated GIFs show only their first frame in some desktop email apps, such as Outlook. Pick a GIF whose first frame still makes sense on its own.

Search for a photo ("swimming pool", "lifeguard") and choose one. Each photo shows who took it. When you use a stock photo, its credit ("Photo by … on Unsplash", linked to the photographer) appears under the picture. The photo sites require that credit, so the editor shows it and doesn't let you change it ("Credit required by the photo provider."). A photo you choose is added to Your library with its credit.

• "GIF search is not set up yet" or "Stock photo search is not set up yet": that search has not been turned on for your club's site. There is nothing to change in your settings. Upload and Your library still work. Ask Swim Ops support if you need it.

• "GIF search is busy right now" or "Stock photo search is busy right now": every club shares these search services, and together they have used this hour's share. Try again later, or upload your own picture.

• "Too many searches in a short time" or "You've added a lot of images in a short time": your club has searched or picked a lot of images in the last few minutes. Wait a few minutes and try again.

• "GIF search isn't working right now" or "Stock photo search isn't working right now": the photo site didn't answer. Try again in a few minutes.

In the read-only demo, image search says "Image search isn't available in the read-only demo." and uploads, picks and removals say "This is the read-only demo. Nothing here can be changed."

Pictures your club uploaded before the media library was added may not be in Your library yet. Swim Ops support can add them for you in one step. They come in without descriptions. Nothing already published changes.

• Describe what matters in the picture, not the file name. "Kids jumping into the deep end" beats "IMG_2031".

• GIFs and stock photos are shown from the photo site itself. If a site ever removes one, it stops showing wherever it was used, so for anything important (a board photo, the pool itself) upload your own.