WNBA roster files

WNBA roster files for Photo Mechanic and GalleryID Desktop

Twelve-player rosters sound easy to keep in your head until you are courtside on a deadline and two of them changed last week. The season is short enough that every game matters and roster movement is constant. SnapCaption builds the file in about a minute for Photo Mechanic and GalleryID Desktop.

Free. No account required to build and download a file.

What makes WNBA rosters painful by hand

Every sport breaks a roster file in its own way. These are the ones that bite in WNBA.

Small rosters turn over fast

With roughly a dozen players on a team, one signing or waiver changes a meaningful share of the roster. A file from last month is materially wrong.

A short season leaves no slack

There are far fewer games than in the NBA, so nothing is a throwaway. Spending prep time on roster entry rather than the assignment is a poor trade.

Overseas movement between seasons

Players arrive from and depart to leagues abroad. Pulling a current roster avoids captioning someone who is not on the team anymore.

One file, both applications

The export is not locked to one program. The same WNBA roster file loads into Photo Mechanic and into GalleryID Desktop, with identical shortcodes either way.

Photo Mechanic

Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements > Load, then pick the file. The shortcodes are live in the caption fields immediately.

Code Replacement is the name Camera Bits, Inc. gives the feature in Photo Mechanic's own documentation, which is why this file is often called a code replacement roster file.

GalleryID Desktop

Attach the same file as a roster and the identical shortcodes expand while you caption. Nothing about the export changes.

GalleryID Desktop goes further than shortcodes — it identifies athletes by facial recognition and writes the names into the photo, so there is no code to type at all. See GalleryID Desktop

What a shortcode looks like

You type
h22
The caption field shows
Marcus Cole, #22, Guard, Riverdale Wolves

The h is the prefix you assigned the home team, 22 the jersey number. Both teams go in one file with separate prefixes, and coaches get their own codes.

What goes in your WNBA file

You choose the columns. The export is a tab-separated file, so anything that reads a tab-delimited roster can use it.

  • Full name, first name and last name as separate columns if you want them
  • Jersey number written as 22, #22 or (22)
  • Position as an abbreviation, lowercase, or title case
  • Team name
  • Long-form caption strings, for example: Marcus Cole #22 of the Riverdale Wolves

WNBA teams you can build a roster file for

15 teams, kept current from in-season sources. Pick any two and build one file for the whole game.

  • Atlanta Dream
  • Chicago Sky
  • Connecticut Sun
  • Dallas Wings
  • Golden State Valkyries
  • Indiana Fever
  • Las Vegas Aces
  • Los Angeles Sparks
  • Minnesota Lynx
  • New York Liberty
  • Phoenix Mercury
  • Portland Fire
  • Seattle Storm
  • Toronto Tempo
  • Washington Mystics

WNBA roster file questions

How do I load a WNBA roster file into Photo Mechanic?

In Photo Mechanic, go to Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements, click Load, and select the file. GalleryID Desktop attaches the same file as a roster with no change to the export.

Are coaches included?

Yes. Coaches and staff get their own shortcodes rather than jersey-number codes.

How current are the rosters?

Rosters sync from current-season sources, so building on game day gives you the roster as it stands that morning.

Can I edit the roster before exporting?

Yes. Any row can be corrected, added or removed before you export, which is useful when a signing is newer than the source.

Build your WNBA roster file

Pick your teams, set your codes, download the file. Free, and no account required.

Open the roster builder