Transcript
Introduction
Join me as you explore the Media Library and ways to organize all your media. You can add various media types to your library, from photos, screenshots, audio, PDF documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and more. If you have a lot of media in your library, managing all your media might start feeling disorganized or intimidating. You may be asking, isn’t there a way to categorize your media? The answer is yes, and we will use a plugin to achieve this goal.
Media Library Organizer
Let’s make our way to Plugins and click on Add New. I will type “Media plugin organizer” in the search box, and within a second or two, we can choose from various options. I will be selecting an open-source plugin called Media Library Organizer. Media Library Organizer doesn’t replace the look and feel of the Media Library. Instead, it will enhance the WordPress user interface, adding key features needed for mass organization and searching and filtering of media. There are many other plugins in the Plugin Directory, such as WordPress Real Media Library, FileBird, and Wicked Folders. Let’s go ahead and install the Media Library Organizer plugin. Always remember to click Activate.
Categories
When I return to the Media Library, you will see that we now have a new left sidebar called Media Categories, and you have three options to add, edit, and delete. Due to the fact that I haven’t created any categories, I only have the option to add new categories and subcategories. I will go ahead and create a new category and name it Traveling. Then, I will click on Bulk Select and choose the appropriate images. And once I’ve done that, I will drag and drop them into the new category. The second category I want to create will be called Nature, and once I’ve created the folder, I will once again click on Bulk Select and then choose all the relevant images I want to add to this category. Once I’ve finished selecting all the media, I will drag them into their new category, Nature. The third category I want to create is going to be called Lifestyle.
Subcategories
Now, I will click on the category to add subcategories. I will right-click on my mouse, select Add Child, and name my subcategories. The first one will be called Exercise, and the second is Recipes. Once done, I will click Bulk Select, choose the exercise images, and drag and drop them to their new category. Lastly, I want to create three more subcategories within Recipes. The first category will be Vegetarian, the second one will be Meat, and the last one is Breakfast. Once I’ve created the subcategories, I will choose Bulk Select and drag and drop the images to their respective categories. So first breakfast, then my vegetarian options, and then a meat dish. Now, you will see all the images in their categories.
Conclusion
The display of categories we see here is called tree view and is used for easy searching, filtering, and bulk categorization. If you click on Unassigned, you will be able to view all the images or files that have not yet been categorized. If you right-click on a category and decide to delete it, the images or files will merely return to being unassigned. As you have seen, using a media manager plugin can help you organize and feel more in control of your site’s media.