Some themes allow you to specify a Featured Image for your Page and Post. A Featured Image, often called a Post/Page Thumbnail, is usually some sort of image that is representative for that particular Page or Post. How these images are displayed is dependent entirely on the Theme that is currently in use.
If your Theme allows you to set a Featured Image, the following Featured Image panel will be displayed when you’re editing your Page or Post. If Featured Images can’t be set then this panel won’t be displayed.
Setting your featured image is very similar to adding an image into your Page or Post. After clicking the Set featured image link a pop-up window will display that looks similar to the one that displays when you add an image to your Page/Post. You can upload a new image to use as your Featured Image or you can simply choose from one of your previously uploaded images.
By default, you’ll be shown a list of the previously uploaded images. If you’d like to upload a new image, click on the Upload Files link at the top of the pop-up window. After clicking the image you’d like to use as your featured image you can then update the Title, Caption, Alt Text and Description. To set the image as your Featured Image, click the Set featured image button. Your chosen image will then appear in the Featured Image panel.
All the images that appear will be used within your Image Gallery. To reorder the images simply click on an image and drag it to its new position. If you’d like to add captions to your images, click the ‘Caption this image..’. text below each image and then type in your caption. Alternatively, click each image and then update the Title, Caption, Alt Text and Description on the right hand side of the pop-up window. You can also include basic HTML, such as links, in your captions.
If you decide you no longer want a certain image to appear in your gallery, click the small ‘x’ that appears in the top right corner of the image when you hover your cursor over it. Since the built-in gallery is quite simple, there aren’t that many options to choose from when setting it up.
- Link to – This sets what happens when the thumbnail image is clicked. Selecting Media File will open the full size image directly in your browser window. Selecting Attachment Page will open the image within one of your WordPress formatted pages
- Columns – Specifies the number of columns to use when displaying your thumbnail images. Ultimately, this will be dependent on your Theme and how wide your page is. If you find the gallery isn’t displaying properly after changing this number you may need to change it to another number
- Random Order – Click this checkbox to display your images in a random order