With this article I just want to go over the fundamentals of adding images or for that matter any type of media (videos, audio) to your WordPress site via your dashboard and into your content for a post or page.
If you are not familiar with adding posts or pages in WordPress then it might be wise to learn this first before you tackle adding images.
Lets Start
OK first thing to do is either click on add new in either posts or pages depending on what you are planning to do and then on the new page look for the upload/insert options which you will find underneath where you place the title of your post or page.
Now click on the icon that looks like a camera and music note together. If your using an older version of wordpress you may see 4 options all of which will either add images, video or audio. In this case we are adding an image so click the first or only icon of what ever version you have.
NB; I find its best to add the content first before you add any images this way you can decide better where you want the image to appear. This is done easily by clicking your cursor in the place you want the image to appear before you click on the add images/media icon.
Uploading Your Image
Next we are confronted with a box that allows us to find images/photos etc that are located on your computer. All you have to do is click select files and you can then locate your image on your computer and then double click on it to upload it. When this happens your WordPress screen will say crunching.
One good thing to remember here is you only have to upload an image once to your WordPress dashboard. This means if you want to use this image again all you have to do for future reference is click the image icon as normal and then instead of clicking select files you can click media library or gallery at the top of the box. This will then reveal any media you have uploaded in the past for you to insert and use again.
Editing and Inserting Your Image
Right, now you have uploaded and WordPress has crunched the image you should be on a screen that gives you the image in the top left as well as some options just below. There are several things we can do hear first before you actually add the image.
The first being being the edit image button underneath the image. Clicking this allows you options such as cropping the image or rotating it in various ways. Once done with editing you simple click save.
The next thing you want to do is give the image a title in the title box below. This will give people information whenever they place their cursor over the image. You could use this as a call to action such as “click here for more details”.
The alternate text box is a bit more complicated to explain and perhaps too much detail for this article but basically it is useful for gaining better search engine visibility and also for instances where your image does not appear but the alternate text does. I generally would just add some keywords in this box that are relevant to your image.
Next bit is a caption. This is if you want a caption to appear just below the image, if not leave it blank.
The description box is really for your benefit so that you know exactly what this image was for if you come to use it again via your WordPress dashboard.
OK the next section is quite important. The link url box is where you have the website address of where you want people to go to if they click on your image. By default it is set to take people just to a page where the image will appear on its own if they click on it. Me personally I do one of 2 things here.
1) If I want the image to link to somewhere else perhaps a product I am promoting then I replace the current Link URL (web address) with whatever website address I need to put in there. This means when they click on my image they will go to wherever I have decided to send them
2) If I want them to stay on my website when they click the image then just click the none button underneath and this will make the image dead.
Now we want to choose the alignment. This will dictate where the image appears on your page or post. Now a rule of thumb here is if you clicked your cursor in the place you want to see your image appear before you clicked the add image icon at the start then you want to check the alignment button that corresponds with this. IE; if your image is going in the center then check that or left or right then check these. It just makes sure your image goes exactly where you want it to go.
The last thing you need to do before inserting into post is decide on the image size. Me personally if the image is not too large (less than 500×500) then I will check the full size option, if it is too large then you might want to check one of the smaller options. Either way you can edit the size once it is uploaded.
OK now click insert into post and you will see your image in your post or page. Now don’t worry if it looks wrong or is in the wrong place as there are options to edit it. My advice is to first publish it to see how it actually looks live on your site.
Final Editing
If you then want to edit it just click on the image in your dashboard and you will then see 2 options.
The red circle is to delete the image and the other is to edit. The edit options gives you lots of options such as size, position, link url etc so that you can get the image just right.
Please be aware that adding media especially images is often a case of trial and error. Often it appears slightly in the wrong place or the wrong size but as you gain more experience so to will you have less editing to do.
This now concludes my article WordPress- How to add images into your content.
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