Using the Media manager, it’s extremely simple to insert, align and link your individual images, image galleries, videos and documents.
To insert a image or video into your Page/Post, click the Add Media button (
) and then simply drag your image(s) / video(s) from wherever they are on your computer, into the browser window. Your file(s) will be automatically uploaded.
Alternatively, click the Select Files button and then select the file(s) that you’d like to upload, using the dialog window that is displayed.
It’s also possible to simply drag your image straight into the Visual Editor, rather than clicking the Add Media button.
No matter whether you’ve clicked the Add Media button or simply dragged and dropped your image or video into the Visual Editor, once your image or video is uploaded, your Media Library is displayed, which contains all your previously uploaded files. The image(s) and video(s) that you’ve just uploaded will be automatically ‘selected’ for easy insertion into your Page or Post. Selected images or videos are shown with a ‘tick’ icon in the top right corner of the uploaded file.
After uploading your image(s) or video(s), you can then select other previously uploaded images or videos by holding down the Ctrl key (Cmd key on Macs) and simply clicking on them. To deselect, click the ‘tick’ in the top right corner of the image.
At the bottom of the window you will see a count of the number of media files currently selected.
There are several options within this Insert Media window to help make it easier to add images or videos into your Page or Post.
By default, all previously uploaded media are shown, starting with the most recent uploads. If you’d like to narrow this list down, at the top of the window is a dropdown list that allows you to filter your displayed images by All media items, items Uploaded to this post/page, or Images, Audio files, Video files or Unattached files. You can also filter your media files by selecting a date, or alternatively, there is also a Search field that allows you to search for specific images.
The properties of the currently highlighted image (i.e. The image with the blue border) will be shown on the right-hand side of the Insert Media window. These properties include the filename, the date the file was uploaded and the image size. It’s at this point you can also change the image Title, Caption, Alt Text and Description for each image, as well as the Alignment, Link and the Size at which the image is inserted.
- Title: is displayed as a tooltip when the mouse cursor hovers over the image in the browser.
- Caption: is displayed underneath the image as a short description. How this displays will be dependent on the WordPress theme in use at the time. You can also include basic HTML in your captions.
- Alt Text: is displayed when the browser can’t render the image. It’s also used by screen readers for visually impaired users so it’s important to fill out this field with a description of the image. To a small degree, it also plays a part in your website Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Since search engines can’t ‘read’ images they rely on the Alt Text.
- Description: is usually displayed on the attachment page for the media, however this is entirely up to the theme that is currently in use.
For each media file, you can select how you would like the image aligned, either Left, Center or Right aligned, using the Alignment dropdown list. You can also select None for no alignment which will mean the media will display using the default alignment setting for your Theme.
You can also change what your inserted image(s) will link to using the Link To dropdown list. You have the choice of linking to the image’s attachment page by selecting Attachment Page, or you can link to the full size image by selecting Media File. You can also link to any URL by selecting Custom URL. When you do this, a new field will appear that allows you to enter in the custom URL. You can also choose not to link to anything by selecting None.
When your image(s) are uploaded, System will also create several copies of your file at various sizes. You can choose which one you’d like to insert into your Page or Post using the Size dropdown list. To insert the image at the exact size you uploaded, simply select Full Size. Next to each size listed in this dropdown will be the actual dimensions of the image, in pixels (e.g. 300 x 225).
Once you’ve selected all your media files, click the Insert into post button to insert the selected file(s) into your Post at the current cursor position (when editing a Page, this button will say Insert into page).
If you’d like to change the order of your media file, click the Edit Selection link at the bottom of the Insert Media window. The window will change so that only the selected images are shown. Alternatively, clicking the Clear link will deselect all.
After clicking the Edit Selection link at the bottom of the Insert Media window, all the currently selected images are shown. You can change the order in which the images will appear in your Page or Post by clicking and dragging each image to reorder them. You can also update the image Title, Caption, Alt Text and Description for each image. To remove one of your selected images, click the small ‘-’ that appears in the top right corner of the image when you hover your cursor over the tick.
To delete a file simply select that file and you will see the option (Delete Permanently).