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TNG lets you choose a particular thumbnail photo for each person that will then be shown on all charts and next to that person’s name at the top of all their pages. That is referred to in TNG as the person’s “Default” photo. So how do you do that?

First, make sure you have at least one photo linked to that person, and that a thumbnail has been created for that photo. You can do that as you upload photos one at a time, or you can create thumbs for all your photos using the Generate Thumbnails tool under Admin >> Media >> Thumbnails.

Once a person is linked to at least one photo, there are a variety of ways to select that person’s Default photo:

1. After searching for an individual to link to a photo, check the “Make Default” option next to that individual in the search results.http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-3.49.01 PM.png
2. After the media link has been created, check the box next to that link under the “Default” column in the Media Links section of the Edit Media page.http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-3.53.12 PM.png
3. Edit the media link, then check the “Make Default” option in the popup and save.http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-3.54.41 PM.png
4. After searching for an individual under Admin >> People, click the box next to that name that says “Choose default photo”, then on the next page mouse over the entry for that photo and click the “Make default” option. If you don’t see that “choose” box, then the person has no photos linked to them, or the person already has a default photo (and you’ll see it there).http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-3.57.58 PM.png
5. After editing an individual under Admin >> People, click the same “choose” box next to the person’s name. http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-3.58.48 PM.png
6. On the Admin >> Media >> Sort page, enter the person’s ID or search for it, then click “Continue” and choose the default photo the same way you did in the previous options above.http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-4.00.05 PM.png
7. Use the Assign Defaults utility to make sure everyone with at least one photo has a default (see below).

But if you want to save yourself some time, you might investigate the Admin >> Media >> Assign Defaults utility first. That tool will automatically designate the first photo for everything individual as that person’s default photo (unless they already have one).

The “OG” TNG users (those of us who have been here a while) will also remember an “old” method for designating defaults. That method is no longer mentioned on any of the TNG Admin pages, but you can still use it. Here’s how it works:

1. Create your own thumbnail for a person.
2. Name it according to this convention: tree.personID.jpg. So for example, if your tree has an ID of “tree1” and your person has the ID of I12345, then you would name this image tree1.I12345.jpg.
3. Now use an FTP program or your cPanel file manager to upload this photo to the “photos” folder on your site.

So what if you don’t see any of the options to create thumbnails or assign default photos? If that’s the case, it means that your PHP has been configured without support for the GD image library. Visit your cPanel, then open the PHP version tool and look a the configuration page there. If the GD box is unchecked, simply check it and you’re good. If you don’t see it, you may need to ask your hosting provider if GD is supported and if they can enable it for you.

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