Images are an essential part of websites and blogs: they make your page look more appealing, support themes or moods in your writing, and are informative for your readers. Plus, they can show off how photogenic your dog can be.
Why do we care about the Media Library?
The WordPress Media Library houses all of the original images, audio, and videos found on your site in one place. This is the place for you to upload media whenever you need it. Once your media is in the library, you can easily insert it into your website.
Great, but how do I use the Media Library?
Let’s say that you wanted to write a blog post about your dog, Buster. The problem is, you can’t find your favorite photo of him anywhere on your computer or phone. The only place you can find the perfect picture is on your old website — the one that has been collecting dust for awhile. You try to save the image straight from the webpage, but when you try inserting it into your new blog post, the picture is too small and WordPress won’t let you resize it. But don’t worry; all is not lost!
Log into the backend of your website and select Media from the side bar. There, you can find the original image. Click on the image you want to download. Right-click on the blown up image, and select “Save image as …” to download it onto your device.
When you get to your new site, go to the library and select “Add New” at the top and “Select Files” to upload all of the cute dog pictures you want to use.
While you are writing new posts or editing a web page, simply select “Add Media” above the text box and then select the “Media Library” tab.
A note about photo resolution
WordPress can quickly resize an image for you when you insert it in a webpage. That resizing affects the resolution, which is why sometimes downloading straight from a webpage doesn’t work like you’d expect. For example, if the image you found is a thumbnail, WordPress won’t let you size it any larger (or worse, it will appear blurry when you blow it up). Getting the source image is the key to getting a good-looking image on your website, and you can usually find that image in the Media Library.
Need to download all the photos from your Media Library at once? If you’re an Infomedia client, we can help! Get in touch with Infomedia’s Support team and let us know what you need; we can pull all the images from your site in a batch so you don’t have to pull them one at a time.
