WordPress 101 – Adding Images to Posts or Pages

Well, you’re really in it pretty deep now. We’ve covered the Dashboard, Posts and Pages and the Visual Editor’s role in all of that. Now, you’ve got pages on your site, posts in your blog, and you’re starting to get the hang of editing it all. But – websites need images and people like to see websites with images on ’em.

“How? Please, Mr. Gaffney – don’t withhold that delicious knowledge from us one more second!”

Well – you add stuff using the Visual Editor and the “Add Media” button. Easy-peasy, right?

A bit of a synopsis on adding images to your WordPress posts and pages:

1. Click and place your cursor within the text where you would like the image to be inserted.
2. Click on Add Media button (above the Visual Editor, and with the cute little camera and music note icon.) You might need to click on Upload Files at the top left of the screen that pops up.
3. Click on Select Files.
4. Locate the images on your computer you want to upload and click Open.
5. Once it’s done uploading, you’ll have some options on the right of the screen:
   • Title: Type a title for the image. This is important for search engines. Choose a descriptive title that works with the content of your page. For instance – if you’re writing a post about puppies and insert a photo of puppies, give it a title that includes stuff like “Cute photo of puppies.” It’s a good habit to get into to give all your images good, rich, SEO-friendly titles.
   • Caption: If you want your image to have a caption, this is the place to add it. Depending upon your theme, it may appear in a box or in some sort of different configuration – but the text will usually be below the image.
   • Alt Text: Add alternate text. Again – good for search engines and for folks whose browsers don’t display images. If the browser doesn’t display images, this text will appear – so, make it descriptive of the photo itself – not necessarily of the page that it’s on.
   • Alignment: Choose how you want the image to align – None  or Center and it’ll float on it’s own line. Left or Right and it will push itself to one side of the page and your text will flow around it. Pretty sweet…
   • Link To: Tells the browser what to do when a person clicks on the link. “Media File” will link the photo to itself. Good if you need to have a thumbnail that blows up to a bigger size (also pretty sweet if we installed Auto Thickbox Plus on your site – we’ll let you know…) “Custom URL” allows you to use your image as a link to another site – or a page within your site – or a file in your Media Library. “Attachment Page” links to a page that can show all the attachments that you’ve put on the page you’re currently editing. Honestly, still haven’t found much of a practical use for that one… “None” deadens the link altogether.
   • Size: Size of image as you want it to appear – Thumbnail, Medium, Large or Full Size. If you sized the image before you uploaded it, you can leave it at Full Size. If the image you started with is big, you can change the size before you insert it into your post.
   • Insert into Post/Page: Inserts your image into the post or page.
6. Done!

Now you’ve got a page with a beautiful image. But – what if it’s too big or too small? Want to re-size? Want to change the link or the Alt Text? You can edit an image by being in your Visual Editor and:

1. Clicking the image you’d like to edit.
2. Clicking on Edit icon (looks like a little pencil) that shows over the image.
3. Editing the information you’d like to change. You can also scale the image by percentage. Sweet.
4. Clicking the Update button.

Man – that was easy! Now get out there and make your WordPress site YOURS.

Only 1 more week until we launch our fabulous WordPress help, tutorial and resources section. You’ll want to see this!