Here is the Medium Fix for those pesky Title Issues.
User interfaces need lots of coaxing and back rubs.
I like the idea of medium as a place to present articles in a manner people can share them. Although I don’t know the algorithms work exactly, for now i’m determined to use it to post articles. But I was having a hard time figuring out setting a title image also working with my article titles. It got VERY annoying until I figured out a few quick fixes which should make life super easy for users having issues from now on. This article relates mainly to SETTING YOUR TITLE IMAGE, and ADDING/READDING a title properly if you accidentally delete it during editing, or just want to change it later down.
1. USE LARGER TITLE IMAGES (AT LEAST 1200PX WIDE)
Once I used an image that was over 1200px in width, it could be easily set as a title image (landscape etc). It seems images at 1000px or less might randomly not go to landscape mode (don’t ask me why). But once your image is at least 1200px wide, Medium has no problem setting it as the title image.
2. IF YOU DELETE YOUR TITLE, REPLACE IT IN THE EDIT WINDOW, NOT IN THE MAIN AREA.
What’s the edit window? Here’s a picture. It’s the area with the text highlighted in blue.
A major problem i’ve had (and i’m sure thousands of users have had is) if you delete the “TITLE” at the beginning of your post it goes away and you can’t put it back. Or, maybe in hindsight you want to put a title and type it in the logical area below the banner but it doesn’t show as your article title. What you need to do is double click where you see the blue text (in this case it is my article title) and type your new title there. Below it is your optional subtitle, which you can also change there. Once you’ve done that NOTE THIS: YOUR NEW TITLE WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE MAIN AREA.
Don’t worry about this because in the system, the new title is saved. Simply wait for it to autosave and go to “DRAFTS” then click on your title. You will see that your article title has now changed. BUT, you will still need to manually add the title under the image. (Again don’t ask me why). I will show you what I mean. In the image below i’ve changed the article title to “ARGGGH” as you can see highlighted in blue.
Below you can see that this new title shows in drafts.
WHAT DID NOT CHANGE WAS THE ORIGINAL TITLE IN THE MAIN WINDOW. Basically my new title doesn’t automatically change to “ARGGGGH” as you can see. The red circle shows my new updated title, but the original title still remains in the main area.
So there is a software disconnect between title updates in that window and what you see in the main area. But now that you know this, you shouldn’t have any problems setting both your title images or adjusting your article titles from now on. (until Medium updates the User Interface to accommodate this issue) Please share this with anyone you think needs clarity on doing this. cheers
