Can you simplify your notes? There is so much here I'm not sure where to even start responding! Trying my best...

Thanks,
Justin

Um.... so let me see if I got this right:

Example 1) use posts as "categories" . .. since I can categorize the post... then the images associated with that post are essentially "categorized" as well.

It seems a little clunky - consider: One hundred images, ten categories (at least!) ... and each image falls into at least three categories...

This means that I have to have a post with every single combination of "categories" that I'd like my images to be included in.

One post may be "b&w, baby, home" and another post with the categories "b&w, baby, away"... and if I have a color picture of my baby at home.. that's another post with all three categories... and if I have a b&w picture of baby at home and want to add the category Grandpa, then I need another post with the categories: b&w, baby, home, grandpa. . . . .

So.. while theoretically workable, it is not, in fact, a working means to handle pictures that must be sorted by several "keywords" to then be shown on a page.

2) use tags the same as described above, but using the tags feature on the posts, which leads to essentially the same problem of having to create a post for every possible combination of "groupings" I might ever want to display together.

Did I misunderstand?

If not - then this is no solution.

... after attempting to attach images to a post I am doubly lost.
do I have to insert the images into the post in order to have them "categorized" by the post? But when I do that, they all (like... 20 of them) show up in the left sidebar all squished.... and then what, posts don't show pictures with any kind of template other than POST . .. what I'm after is a way to make pages that show ad-hoc collections of images, in Masonry format, but if it is only possible to see posts in Post format.. then no can do?

Hmm... I know that you can set the portfolio to show images, or go into the post itself. This would almost pass as a work-around for what I'd like to do (put individual images into many categories and have quickly changeable collections of these called up in a page based on which of the categories I'd like to show) but - the portfolio settings for the Posts is "global"... either all posts are galleries only, or all posts are set to be entered, where the images then all line up on the left (not masonry style) . . ..

Mmmmm....

Am I still missing something?

Hey there,

No, you don't need to upload them multiple times if they're associated with a Post. Two options:

1) You can setup Several different Categories > Add each to your Menu > Add Posts and check-off all the categories that they would fall into. That'll solve your multi-categorization issue.

2) Use Tags instead of multi-categorizaton then place a Tag Cloud on your site (Widget). That'll allow people to filter by Tags on any page where you add the Tag Cloud as a Widget.

That should do it - Good luck!
Justin

So here is the scoop:

imagine you have one hundred images.
those images all fit into several of ten different kinds of groups
(e.g., b&w, color, here, there, me, you, we, them, past, future, right, wrong)

each image each belongs to at least three different groups
(e.g. 01.JPG = b&w, baby, home
02.JPG = color, baby, clubbing)

Now - here's the question:

Do I need to upload each file multiple times
in order to get it to have multiple categories?

What I want to do is to have one pool of files, each with multiple categories (since I don't think that the TAGS do anything in terms of determining what gets shown with a post or page) and be able to make a post/page displaying only one of those categories at a time.

Based on the examples above, I'd like to show a "blog template" page (for example) that shows blog entries that contain the tag "clubbing", and then have a "masonry template" page that shows only the "baby" category, but I don't want to have to upload the pictures of my baby clubbing TWICE (once for each category... or worse, many of my images fall into seven or more groupings).

Any chance I'm missing something here? Do I really need to upload the files multiple times?

Thank you for your help (and reading this whole thing).