How to see a Description of any Watchtower Article Photo
Have you ever wanted to comment on one of the Watchtower study photos but then pause wondering if you know the correct meaning? Or perhaps you’re preparing to conduct the Watchtower study and want to make sure the point of the photo is understood the way the Branch intended it. You don’t need to guess because a description of each photo is available whether it has a caption or not. The description resides in the HTML code of the online article. We’ve built a Workflow to grab each photo’s description and display it for you on your iPhone or iPad. If you’re not familiar with the powerful iOS app called Workflow, read all about it in our full review here.
But let’s talk about how the process of grabbing the photo description works. As stated, each photo on wol.jw.org has HTML text description associated with it. You cannot see these descriptions when reading the article. You need to dig into the source code. If you’re on a computer you can do this by using the Google Chrome browser and right-clicking on any photo. Then click “Inspect” and a panel will appear on the right side of your browser highlighting the source code of the photo. There you will see the Branch description. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work on iPhone or iPad. But Workflow provides a better solution in my opinion. If you already have the Workflow app installed on your iPad simply download this workflow link and you’ll be ready to go.
After getting the workflow at the above link, head on over to wol.jw.org and bring up any Watchtower study article. Once there, tap on the Safari share button. Here you will see an option called “Run Workflow”. If you don’t see Workflow available, scroll all the way to the right, tap “More” and enable Workflow. Tap “Run Workflow” and then choose the “JW Photo Descriptions” workflow from the list. This will begin the process of automatically finding the descriptions and laying them on each photo. Once complete, a PDF of all the photos and their descriptions will be presented. This PDF can then be emailed, texted, or copied to another app. Here is are some screenshots of the process and the result.
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December 16, 2016 @ 10:12 am
Thanks for your time!
December 16, 2016 @ 11:06 am
I can’t get workflow to open. I have deleted it and re-downloaded it, but it don’t open. I bought it sometime ago and never had the time to really set things up. Now I would like to buy it wont open. Any ideas?
December 16, 2016 @ 11:33 am
Never mind…I just updated my iPad and now it works.
December 16, 2016 @ 11:42 am
Hooray! Glad to hear that. Thanks for the update.
December 16, 2016 @ 2:40 pm
I can’t see “View Source”…all I see is “Inspect” when I right click. I tried to follow these instructions: “You need to dig into the source code. If you’re on a computer you can do this by using the Google Chrome browser and right-clicking on any photo. Then tap “View Source” and a panel will appear on the right side of your browser highlighting the source code of the photo.” Can’t seem to find how to do it? Any help would be appreciated.
December 16, 2016 @ 2:49 pm
Hey Brenda. You’re right. Click “Inspect” when using a computer.
December 16, 2016 @ 3:33 pm
Where are the photos?
Purchased Workflow downloaded JW Photo went to wol website found article “shared” with Workflow see photos come up hit JW Photo Where do I go to see them?
December 16, 2016 @ 4:07 pm
Hi. Thanks for the comment. You should see the photos in the resulting PDF that is created. You can then hit the share buttons on the PDF preview and email, text, or copy the PDF to another app. Please let me know if this works.
December 18, 2016 @ 10:16 pm
Hi
I click on the share icon in Safari and look under More but don’t see Workflow as an option to select. What might I be doing wrong?
Thanks.
Chris
December 19, 2016 @ 6:54 am
Hi. Thanks for the question Chris. In lower half of the share menu please slide all the way to the right and tap “More”. Then you can enable the Workflow extension to be available in the share menu. Please let me know if this doesn’t work.
December 19, 2016 @ 8:59 pm
Got it. Thank you.
December 19, 2016 @ 9:02 pm
Awesome!
December 24, 2016 @ 1:23 pm
Thank you for this fantastic workflow! I got it to work on the 2nd try:). Once I got it to run, I went back to last week’s study article and realized that the comments we made regarding the 1st photo, we definitely were off the mark:) So this will help me going forward and I hope others as well.
Thanks again.
December 24, 2016 @ 2:05 pm
Could you make a Chinese version of this workflow?
December 24, 2016 @ 2:08 pm
可以. ? Well, actually this will work on any language you are reading on wol.jw.org.
December 24, 2016 @ 2:09 pm
Awesome. I’m glad it worked for you. Thanks for letting me know. What did you need to do to get it to work?
December 24, 2016 @ 2:30 pm
I meant will you make one for us, if it’s not too much trouble?. I’m also in the Chinese field and would love to look at both Chinese and English versions. I used this workflow in preparation for conducting today’s watchtower. Great job! Thanks.
December 24, 2016 @ 2:38 pm
That’s very cool! Glad it helped. This current workflow will work on the Chinese article. For example, try running it on this article: http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/dsync/r1/lp-e/r24/lp-ch/2016767 Please let me know if that’s what you’re looking for or you need something else.
December 24, 2016 @ 5:44 pm
Just a note to say thank you for your time and effort on educating us on the different apps. Learning how to use them for Theocratic activities is most appreciative.
December 24, 2016 @ 6:13 pm
Thanks so much for your kind words! Happy to help!
December 24, 2016 @ 6:40 pm
Oh! Thanks, why didn’t I get it! I thought you needed a different workflow but just need to go to the Chinese article. So easy. Thanks again. I enjoy all the theocratic workflows they are so helpful.
December 24, 2016 @ 6:57 pm
Sweet. Glad it worked for you! Let me know if you think of any other good workflows.
December 27, 2016 @ 1:42 pm
What an amazing tool! Thank you for all your hard work making that workflow-flow. I had it open in iBooks which sometimes cuts off the sentence. So I opened it in documents5 which works great!
December 28, 2016 @ 11:06 pm
Awesome! Glad it worked for you. Thanks so much for the encouragement!
January 6, 2017 @ 12:15 pm
Finally downloaded workflow. I have iPhone 6+. Followed the steps above to see the image descriptions. The macro runs but I don’t see the PDF or text spoken of in your blurb. Thanks so much for your expertise & commitment.
January 6, 2017 @ 6:22 pm
Hi Linda. Thanks for the questions. I’m sorry you’re having trouble. Can you show me which wol.jw.org article you’re starting with?
January 6, 2017 @ 8:10 pm
Hi using the 1st study article in Jan 2017 mag. http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2017242
January 6, 2017 @ 8:29 pm
Hey Linda. Thanks for letting me know that. Please see this video I made for you: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ky22bj2xnne5j7w/linda.mov?dl=0
January 6, 2017 @ 11:13 pm
Thanks the video was a great help. As suggested I closed safari, etc. but for some reason it just wouldn’t work on my mini. Still transitioning to mini 4 but I tried it & voila. Love this macro! However I plan to use my iPad mini in the ministry. Should this process be problematic on mini?
January 6, 2017 @ 11:19 pm
Glad it worked for you on your mini 4. That’s cool! I’m thinking the problem with the mini is not enough horsepower. Have you recently rebooted your mini? http://youtu.be/n2_KuxZHhAU
January 7, 2017 @ 10:06 am
No I hadn’t. Always thought there should be a way to defrag & clean things up on our mobile devices. I’ve now subscribed to your channel. Thanks.
January 9, 2017 @ 1:30 am
JW Photo Description. About half of the time I receive this error:
cannot run combine images. No images were found to combine. When it works it’s a great tool. Thanks
January 9, 2017 @ 6:50 am
Hi Rich. Thanks so much for letting me know. What device are you using. It seems sometimes running out of memory causes the workflow to not function properly.
January 10, 2017 @ 8:33 am
Awesome! Thanx a lot. Great stuff and kip it up. Well done
January 10, 2017 @ 6:29 pm
The Watchtower photo works especially well on iPhone. Thanks a bunch!
January 19, 2017 @ 9:05 am
Thank you very much for your work. This tool is going to very useful.
January 19, 2017 @ 9:17 am
You’re welcome. Thanks so much for your encouragement.
February 14, 2017 @ 11:01 pm
How might you answer this question that was posed to me:
“Just a question. If the GB really wanted us to have this information about the pic- why wouldn’ t they just share it?” 🤔
February 15, 2017 @ 6:19 am
Hi. Thanks for the question! The brothers have shared it. These descriptions are available and are automatically displayed on Android devices by touching the pictures. But it doesn’t work on iPhone and iPads. So this is the workaround.
February 15, 2017 @ 10:12 am
Thanks, I will share it. I’ve been using this workflow ever since you first shared it. Appreciate all the theocratic workflows. Other than your website do you know if there is a forum of some sort where brothers share workflows they created?
March 7, 2017 @ 4:17 pm
Hello I have tried all of the ways to get the photo for the watchtower nothing is working when I tap more it does not show it is not working I don’t know what else to try I even put the app on my home page now it’s saying I don’t have the URL done right it ask but there is no where to add to it .i spent 2 hours and zip what am I doing wrong if you can make any sense from an old ladies rambling
March 23, 2017 @ 7:09 pm
Hi. Thanks for this cool script. Especially now Workflow is free!. I am however having problems. It runs okay but produces a garbled output. The first picture, then some paragraphs, then a picture description,… With the Options widget (bottom right of Safari screen) pasted over a paragraph.
Perhaps the website has been altered?
March 28, 2017 @ 5:50 pm
Hi, thanks for all your hard work. I am having the same problem as Chris above. Did something change somewhere?
Thanks again,
Debbie
March 29, 2017 @ 6:44 am
Hi Chris and Debbie, thanks for letting me know! Something probably changed in the website code. I’ll try to track it down and find out what’s going on. Thanks!
March 29, 2017 @ 11:06 am
Hi. So I’ve looked into this and the issue is with Workflow. I’ve updated it and now it’s working. I’ll update the links in this page too. But for now, here is the working workflow: https://workflow.is/workflows/d074c6dd3de54ccf872333759b824685
March 29, 2017 @ 12:36 pm
Thank you very much. That fixed it.
Debbie
March 29, 2017 @ 1:56 pm
That’s great! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
June 24, 2017 @ 11:34 pm
Oh, I love it! Once I figured out that I actually have to click the “get workflow” button, it just works like a dream! Thanks for all your hard work!😊
June 27, 2017 @ 3:40 pm
Hi. Getting the descriptions for the photos in WT publications is by far my favorite item on my phone. I find it invaluable. Having said that, I updated my phone to the Public Beta IOS 11, and it no longer works. If there’s not a workaround, I’ll go back to 10… thanks so much for all your time and effort in providing helpful solutions for our theocratic activities! 😊
June 27, 2017 @ 5:58 pm
@Scott
Hi
That’s worth knowing, I was about to try the Beta. Does JW Library work okay?
(Sorry for off topic.)
June 27, 2017 @ 6:11 pm
Yes, it works great. I haven’t really encountered any other problems yet. Some real nice features like recording your screen shots (with audio)…
June 27, 2017 @ 9:20 pm
@Chris. Thanks for answering Scott. @Scott screen recording is the #1 feature I’m looking forward to in iOS 11. But I haven’t installed the beta.
June 27, 2017 @ 9:27 pm
I think you shoukd download it right away. But of course that’s for purely selfish reasons on my part, so you can figure out what’s happening to the pic description module. 😀
June 27, 2017 @ 10:37 pm
Haha I hear ya. Actually I never install betas as the developers don’t have their apps ready yet.
June 28, 2017 @ 5:29 pm
I have all the components but cannot get the app to work for the picture in the watchtower. How do you get the url that’s what it is asking for.
June 28, 2017 @ 10:32 pm
Hi. Thanks for the question. Are you starting from Safari?
June 29, 2017 @ 12:09 pm
So far all my apps seem to be running fine, with the exception of the pic description module. 😄 Being able to mark up screen shots has quickly become my favorite new feature, using it daily.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:53 pm
That’s great news. I’m really looking forward to the update come September. In fact I was just listening to this podcast about all the cool features. AppStories: 11 – iOS 11’s Impact on Third-Party Apps https://overcast.fm/+I5Cktx7rU
June 29, 2017 @ 1:08 pm
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
June 29, 2017 @ 6:44 pm
I have my watchtower in I books. the app swipe in from the right then I click on the app jw picture description, then it ask for “get urls from input. then it has a whole line of info under that to fill in that I don’t know what they are talking about.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:02 pm
Hi. Thanks for letting me know. Please watch the video on this page which explains how to run the workflow. You will need to start by looking at the article in Safari. This will not work from within iBooks. Thanks!
July 1, 2017 @ 11:36 am
Just had a thought… Is it possible to run the Workflow for pic descriptions through Chrome on the iPhone? When I run it, it gives the msg: “No URL Specified. Make sure to pass a URL to Get Contents of URL action.
July 4, 2017 @ 6:31 pm
Some of the captions get cut off how can I fix this?
July 8, 2017 @ 4:30 pm
I’m having the same problem as Grant – the captions are getting cut off. Is there a fix available?
July 8, 2017 @ 5:36 pm
Greetings! This sounds wonderful but can I get these descriptions with Windows 10 or with android? Oh how I would like to join in the excitement! My laptop has Windows 10 and I downloaded Chrome but nothing happened when I right clicked on Inspect. My tablet is Android, when the picture is touched, the picture will appear in another window but no description. Any help you can provide will be most appreciated.
July 8, 2017 @ 11:09 pm
Hi Grant. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Inside the Workflow, under Overlay Image, you can set the width to 600. I’ve done that here with this custom version: https://workflow.is/workflows/03d82831a07d46239fee20689bf3f659
July 8, 2017 @ 11:10 pm
Hi David, please see my above reply to Grant. Thanks and let me know if you have questions.
July 9, 2017 @ 12:33 am
Perfect thanks! I. Still learning how workflow works!
July 9, 2017 @ 9:24 am
This is amazing! Thank you for your hard work to make it work so well. I know in the past comments have been made on pictures in the WT study that are not correct so this will be extremely helpful. Looking forward to digging around your site for other helpful tips.
July 11, 2017 @ 8:41 pm
Resetting the overlay image width to 600 fixed the issue. Thanks for the workaround!
July 11, 2017 @ 10:02 pm
Awesome. Glad to hear that!
July 20, 2017 @ 4:38 pm
Awesome app ! This surely helps explain the pictures ! Love it ! Had to rest the overlay image also …now working very well!
July 24, 2017 @ 6:21 pm
I just updated to IOS 11 Beta 4, and the workflow for pic descriptions is working again. 😃
July 24, 2017 @ 9:55 pm
That’s great news. Thanks for letting me know 😊
August 18, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
Hi. I have tried your app How to see a description of a photo with the book Jesus The way, the truth, the life with the chapter 2. The description of the second image is getting truncated.
Is there a way to correct this problem ? Thank You.
August 18, 2017 @ 10:19 pm
Hello Francois. Resetting the overlay image width to 600 fixes the issue.
August 25, 2017 @ 9:14 pm
Thank you for the fix.
May 29, 2018 @ 11:28 pm
For Windows you can also see photo descriptions in Watchtower Library (cd-rom). Click on the picture to expand it and the description will display in the bottom of the window (below the reaults area)