Adding & Removing Images

Learn how to add images in a variety of ways, remove images safely, and edit the size of images using the media library. This walkthrough will introduce you to some important considerations to keep in mind when adding and removing images.

Transcript

Hi, welcome to Learn WordPress. My name is Sarah Snow. Are you not sure where to upload your images? Or do you have some concerns about deleting existing images? If so, you’re in the right place. This workshop will walk you through both adding images and some little, no considerations about removing them. Let’s get started.

Let’s discuss adding new media.

Now there are a few ways to add an image to this Media Library. Either pictured buttons will take you to the screen or one like it, you can then upload your photos by dragging and dropping them or by looking for them in your finder. Here’s an example of dragging and dropping.

You can also add media to the library by using any sort of image block while you’re working on a post or a page. Now from this page here, I upload a new image and I select the one that I want. Wait for it. An image appears both on the page and in the Media Library, just like magic.

Now let’s talk deleting images and media. The leading media from your WordPress website is a little more complicated than it sounds, you can remove an image from a post or a page and it will still appear in the Media Library. Take a look. You can then choose to use that image on a different poster page in the future.

However, let’s talk about what can happen if you delete an image from your Media Library. If you want to delete your images, videos, or other media from the Media Library itself, do so with caution.

When you delete posts, pages or comments, you can often find them in the trash if you change your mind or made a mistake. However, unlike posts, pages and comments, if you delete an image from your Media Library itself using this button, it is gone forever, or at least until you find it on your computer and re upload it. Worse, you might not know it right away thanks to something known as caching.

The short version of caching is that whatever program you’re using to browse the internet, it likely downloads a temporary copy of your website to your machine, which means your website will continue to look the same as it did for you pictures and doll for a few days. However, everyone else who accesses your website from other computers will see a broken image. So thanks to caching.

Even though you might continue to see an image for a few days, it will eventually disappear. This is what happens if you delete an image from your Media Library, but you left it on a page or a post.

Why do people delete media? Well, some people will upload all sorts of enormous photos, videos or other media that take up a lot of space, which is sometimes the cause for deleting media from the Media Library. The good news is you can auto limit the size of images by default through these settings. If you realize that one of your photos is just a little too big, there are also these edit image settings that will allow you to change what size an image can be.

So for example, let’s say I don’t need something that is 2000 pixels across. This is just a small image that I’m using on a blog post, not one that I’m using as part of a larger layout or as a header image so I can make it smaller. instead of deleting it forever. I can change the scale and make that image smaller, which saves me time and space.

There you have it. Now you know the basics of the Media Library