Instagram Feed & Grid Planner

Choose the purpose of your grid study

Open the Instagram Grid Planner with a question. You might need to introduce a collection without hiding service information, or check covers beside recent photographs. Decide which upcoming group you are reviewing before importing everything in your media folder. A smaller, relevant study is easier to explain than a crowded board with no clear purpose.

The three-column profile study offers 3:4 portrait or 1:1 square tiles. These are approximate review geometries. They let you compare material consistently, but they do not promise an exact match for every account, device, or profile arrangement. Use the study to spot problems, then inspect the real destination separately before publication.

Choose a short project label that names the job, such as “Bookshop autumn reading table.” You have room for 100 characters. Keep the scope clear enough that another person can recognize what is included. This planner holds up to 24 tiles, so use the recent context that affects the decision rather than trying to reproduce years of published content in one project.

Your selected images and project edits are processed in the browser, without an Instagram login or a planner cloud account. The tool does not upload those images to a planning server. That makes it useful for unreleased work, but the files you later download can still contain private artwork and notes. Handle those files according to the people who should see the campaign.

There is no automatic persistent browser storage for your project. Save an editable JSON file when the work becomes worth keeping, and again after a meaningful decision. Do not rely on leaving a tab open as your only copy. The local demo can show the controls without supplying private material; starting again with reset asks for confirmation when the project already contains data.

Separate pins, future posts, and existing content

Give each tile a role. Pinned tiles represent the fixed group you want to consider first. Future tiles represent content still to be published. Existing tiles supply the published context below it. These are manual planning labels. The tool neither checks whether a post exists on Instagram nor verifies which items an account currently has pinned.

The display always places pins first, future content next, and existing content last. Each group is stored in its own display order, read from left to right and then down the rows. You can include up to three pinned tiles. With one or two pins, the next group continues into the remaining positions; do not assume every role starts on a fresh row.

For future content, distinguish the finished view from the steps needed to reach it. Publishing order is the reverse of the future group’s display order only. If future tiles appear as A, B, C, D, the publishing list starts with D, then C, B, and A. Pinned and existing items are excluded from that list, even though both remain visible in the full study.

This is a chronological scenario, not a reconstruction of a profile that someone has manually rearranged. It cannot describe every possible live layout. A future tile also cannot already be pinned in this model. If you want to discuss pinning a new post after publication, put that intention in its note and treat the later account action as a separate decision outside the planner.

Changing a tile’s role appends it to the destination group. Review its new position afterward instead of assuming it kept its old place. Dragging works within a role, not across those group boundaries. A fourth pin cannot be accommodated by silently dropping another one: decide which context belongs in the pinned group and move the other tile to an appropriate role yourself.

Add review images and useful notes

Import static PNG, JPEG, or WebP files from your device. Each source must fit within 10 MB, 20 megapixels, and a maximum dimension of 16,000 pixels. Those are this tool’s limits, not Instagram upload specifications. Animated images, SVG files, and invalid images are not accepted. For a Reel or carousel, bring a still cover image; choosing its type does not import video or carousel slides.

The planner checks image headers before decoding and prepares a copy with a long side no larger than 1,000 pixels. This keeps the review project bounded. Keep your original photographs and design masters in their production folder because the prepared copies are not full-resolution replacements. A large review image on screen does not mean the original publishing asset is stored inside the project.

A new image batch enters at the front of the future group, using the file selection’s display order. That can move earlier plans down the study. Check the resulting list as soon as the import finishes, especially when the files were selected together. A rejected file makes the batch fail without replacing your current work; resolve the file problem before trying that batch again.

Use a label of up to 100 characters to identify an item. Choose photo, Reel, or carousel for its format. Add a multiline note of up to 400 characters for review information. “Use the corrected opening-hours card; owner to confirm wording” gives someone a task. A label such as “Image 7” leaves that person guessing which source to find.

Add an identified placeholder when the idea belongs in the sequence but its image is not ready. Describe what is missing in the note, rather than making an unrelated stock image look approved. Placeholders remain visibly marked in the study and exports. They let you discuss a complete sequence while preserving the difference between a known content slot and artwork that is actually ready to use.

Arrange tiles and check their crops

Select one tile at a time to edit its label, format, role, note, and framing. Move it within its group by dragging, or use the previous and next controls in the tile list. Those controls provide a way to arrange the same sequence without dragging. After a move, read the neighboring labels as well as the pictures so you know which content changed position.

Use cover when the image should fill its tile. Some source content may fall outside that frame. Use contain when seeing the complete source matters more than filling the available area; surrounding space may remain visible. Neither choice edits the original file. They record how the prepared image is shown in this review, which is useful when a wide photograph must fit a taller study.

Adjust the horizontal and vertical focal point from 0 to 100 to position the image within its frame. Keep an important face, object, or printed line visible, then switch the study geometry and look again. A crop that works for the square may remove a useful detail in the portrait view. If positioning cannot solve that problem, request a different source composition.

Duplicate a tile when another planned item needs the same starting material. The duplicate is another tile, not a comparison mode or a link that follows later edits. Give it a distinct label and check its role and note. Remove a tile when it no longer belongs, after saving a copy if the decision may need to be reversed.

Avoid treating the top row as the only view that matters. Follow the sequence into the rows below, where older context meets new work. Two similar product photographs may feel repetitive together even if both are strong alone. A useful notice can become hard to find beside several text-heavy covers. Make changes for a clear reading reason, not simply to complete a decorative color pattern.

Review a bookshop plan and publishing sequence

In this fictional review, Maple Lane Books is introducing an autumn reading table. The owner supplies two pinned references: a shop introduction and a visiting-information card. Three existing photographs show the front window, the reading corner, and a recent author event. These five tiles provide context, but none belongs in the next publishing list.

She adds six future tiles. Their intended display order is reading-table reveal, staff choice, opening-night reminder, author portrait, shelf detail, and unpacking photograph. The study now contains eleven tiles: two pins, six future items, and three existing references. Because the pins occupy the first two positions, the reading-table reveal appears in the third position of the full grid, not at the start of a separate row.

The future publishing order is unpacking photograph, shelf detail, author portrait, opening-night reminder, staff choice, and reading-table reveal. Reading that list aloud catches a problem: the reminder assumes the event has already been introduced. The owner changes its note to request an introductory caption and checks the publication brief separately. The planner has exposed a dependency; it has not written or approved the caption for her.

In the portrait study, the staff-choice photograph crops the book title along its lower edge. Moving the focal point improves that tile, but the visiting-information card remains too dense to read comfortably. She asks the designer for a simpler card instead of shrinking its lettering again. She also spots two near-identical shelf images and chooses a closer object detail for one, giving the neighboring tiles clearer subjects.

Before approval, the owner checks that both pins are references to the intended live context and that every future label matches an available source file. One author portrait is still a placeholder, so its note names the missing permission and the person responsible. The result is a review with one visible dependency, not a finished campaign disguised by a full-looking grid. She saves that state before requesting feedback.

Check clarity and readiness before approval

Ask someone to describe the account from the study alone. Can they tell what the business offers and what the next group is about? Do the images make different, useful points? This checks supplied content, not audience behavior. A polished arrangement does not establish that people will follow, buy, or engage. The planner provides no performance scores or reach predictions.

Check every tile with embedded text at a practical viewing size. Look for cropped prices, unclear dates printed in artwork, missing product names, and pale lettering over busy images. The tool is not a spelling checker or an image-text reader. Read the actual source yourself. A short note can identify the correction, but the lettering must be fixed in the original design before that asset is published.

Review the entire future publishing list for meaning between posts. A reveal may need an earlier introduction; a customer example may need permission; a sales post may need confirmed availability. Keep those dependencies in plain notes. The planner has no date fields, calendar scheduling, or automatic readiness checks. It cannot decide whether a promised product will arrive or whether a campaign’s event information is still accurate.

Then verify role accuracy. An existing reference accidentally left as future becomes part of the publishing list. A planned item marked existing disappears from that handoff even if its image still looks correct on the canvas. Pins need the same care: they are visual context here, not instructions automatically applied to Instagram. Compare the labels and counts with the brief before calling the review complete.

Record a concrete outcome for each unresolved tile: replace the source, simplify the cover, confirm availability, or remove the item from this version. Put the responsible person’s name in the note when useful and appropriate. Do not use a beautiful PNG as evidence that every task is finished. The strongest review ends with a sequence people understand and a short, visible list of work still to do.

Export the study, publishing list, and project

Export a PNG when the recipient needs the full three-column visual study. It uses framing consistent with the on-screen renderer, including the selected study geometry. This image is a review of the arrangement, not finished artwork to upload as individual posts. Keep the source assets separate, and make sure any visible placeholders are understood as unfinished items rather than publication-ready blank designs.

Export CSV for the future publishing handoff. Its first item is the first future asset to publish, not the first tile shown at the top of the grid. It includes filename, label, type, grid position, note, framing, and role. Pins and existing references are left out. Use the labels to match this ordered list with the original files, especially when several images have similar names.

The PDF combines a grid review with a paginated future publishing handoff, notes, and practical review tips. Open it before sharing and read the page that contains any unfinished item. Its footer identifies the free SMTasker report and links to this exact planner. PDF text may be rasterized rather than selectable or tagged, so keep the CSV when someone needs a separate text-based asset list.

Save JSON for editable work. The project contains the prepared images and planning information needed to reopen it, not the original high-resolution masters. Opening a project is an explicit local file action, with a 40 MB file limit and validation of its contents. It is not synchronization with another person’s browser. Save a fresh file after approval so your editable record matches the exported review.

Choose files by the recipient’s task. A reviewer may need PNG and PDF; the publisher may need CSV and the original asset folder. Someone continuing the arrangement needs JSON as well. Re-export after a change to labels, notes, roles, order, or crop. A downloaded report remains a separate snapshot and cannot update itself when the project changes.

Hand off the approved plan

Name the saved files so the recipient can identify the approved version without opening every attachment. For example, pair “Maple Lane autumn approved” with the same version number across the review, list, and project filenames. The filename convention is yours, not an automatic planner version system. Keep earlier drafts separately when they explain a decision, and tell the recipient which one now governs the next work.

Include a short handoff message outside the tool: the purpose of the sequence, the approved version, the first future asset to publish, and any unresolved dependency. Point to the original publishing files, not just the review images embedded in JSON. Assign who will make the remaining design correction and who will check the final account view. Downloaded files do not collect approvals or notify those people automatically.

Transfer dates and responsibilities to your separate calendar process after the visual sequence is agreed. The CSV gives an order, not scheduled times, and this planner does not reserve posting slots. If a product delay changes the plan, return to the editable project, revise the future group, and send a new handoff. Do not ask the publisher to infer a new sequence from an old screenshot and a vague message.

For ongoing account work, SMTasker’s Instagram workflow is a separate product path. Its supported publishing and engagement tasks do not turn this free planner into a connected scheduler. Evaluate that workflow on its own requirements and use the 5-day trial when it fits your work. Opening the planner, saving JSON, or downloading a CSV does not start an account action or transfer this project into the product.

Before closing the tab, confirm that the latest JSON downloaded and the handoff opens correctly. Store private campaign files where only the intended team can access them. Keep original artwork, editable plan, and approved review distinct. Leave with a believable next sequence and a clear owner for publication, remembering that the live account still needs its own final check.