Ease of Use

Usability is a critical factor to evaluate in comparing the different image-handling methods, and there is a lot of variability in this area.

One factor to look at is a module's ability to help the user browse/preview files before choosing or uploading files. Another is how the link or reference to the file is actually inserted into the node's content; some modules make this completely transparent to the user, while others require hand-typing macro tags with cryptic syntax.

WYSIWYG rich text editors can help create an easy-to-use editing environment for content authors. IMCE is a very popular module specifically designed to help content authors upload and use images in Drupal, and many users praise it as being easy to use. However many developers, especially adherents of the image as nodes philosophy, feel this type of solution, as with simply inserting standard HTML <img> tags, does not adequately allow for systematic management of files in the database.

It is important to learn about the security issues regarding your site's input filters; some editors require enabling more tags than the default for "filtered HTML" or even allowing users access to "full HTML", which is not recommended.

Some of the image-handling modules that use inline macro tags integrate with one or more of the WYSIWYG editors. Note that it may currently be somewhat difficult for an administrator to get RTEs working well in Drupal, but there are efforts underway to improve future WYSIWYG integration in Drupal.

Some modules allow for bulk uploading of a batch of files at one time, while others require multiple-click processes for each file being uploaded. This factor is especially important when creating galleries, when large numbers of image files need to be added to the site in one session.

Note there are many variables involved in evaluating usability, so it is important to carefully define your site's unique use case. It is important to distinguish between a module's usability from the site administrator's point of view on the one hand (simplicity in setup and configuration), and your site's usability on the other (making it easy for your users to contribute content). For sites with a large and diverse set of users contributing content, the latter point of view is obviously more important than the former, but even for them it is probably not a good idea to ignore the other, structural factors in comparing image-handling modules.