Fairy Blog Mother
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How to upload pictures into your posts and into your media library for future use.
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First, a glossary (important = read it to understand this e-course fully):
Post = an entry, article, piece of writing or message in your blog.
Dashboard = main menu or hub of a blog which provides access to the various elements.
WordPress.com = the recommended blog programme software provider I’m using for ‘free’ blogs.
Domain name or URL = the web address of your blog or website.
Keywords (Tags) = words that are currently being searched for in search engines and are therefore attractive to internet spiders.
Categories = archived topic pages to store posts for research or retrieval purposes.
Link = an interactive method of getting to another website or blog.
Putting pictures up on your blog will add to the interest value of your posts, and can act as an additional explanation of your subject.
It is a good idea to prepare your pictures for your blog before you upload them. Make them the right size and check they are either in 72dpi or alternatively the correct number of pixels across and down. WordPress prefers to communicate picture size in pixels, because this is most universally understood.
Adapt your pictures within your chosen medium, such as Photoshop. Make sure they are in RGB and crop sufficiently so the subject is positioned suitably within the frame. Name and save your picture on your computer so that WordPress can upload it into your blog’s media library.
OK, let’s start by creating a post to accompany your pictures. Go to the Dashboard through the link at the top (or by the other methods suggested in the e-course ‘Accessing your blog’):
Select your blog’s name, and it will lead you to the dashboard page:
Click on the Add New link to go to the ‘create a new post’ page (both possibilities are circled):
Now write your post that is to go with the picture (see my visual e-course ‘Writing Posts’ to find out more).
The icon for uploading the pictures is found above the text body:
But first you need to get your picture ready. I use Photoshop because it makes my pictures web ready with the correct number of dots per inch (72) and in RGB, and I prefer to size my pictures in centimetres. If you are more familiar with pixels, I have shown both.
You are allowed these kinds of files: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, pdf, doc, ppt, odt, pptx and docx. Be aware of how big the file is, smaller ones may compromise on viewing quality, but will download quicker for the reader.
Save your picture into an appropriate file on your computer for access by WordPress to upload into the media library.
Now you place the cursor where you want you picture to be with your mouse, and click on the picture link to upload your picture:
As you can see, WordPress allows you to upload pictures from your computer, but also from another website if you know its full URL (such as http://fairyblogmother.co.uk/images/comback.gif) and also from your store in the media library.
Click on ‘Select Files’ to bring up your computer’s menu:
Select and upload the picture you want from your computer, and it will go into the media library:
Take a note of the file name, add your caption and URL as a link if applicable, select the alignment of your picture (right, left, centre) and the size (if you’ve prepared your picture in advance you shouldn’t need to adjust it), and click ‘Insert into Post’ and your picture will look like this:
You could leave it like that, but if you want a more advanced appearance, such as a border around your picture and more spacing around it, then click on the picture to highlight it and two icons will appear. Click on the left one to make advanced changes and you will go to the Advanced settings page:
Select your border width (for example: 1) and how much space you would like around your picture (for example: 6), before confirming your URL to open in a new browser window and updating your changes.
Preview your picture in a separate window before publishing and adding your tags and categories, as what you see isn’t necessarily what it looks like when it’s published:
Since the preview has opened in a separate window (in fact this is the post’s own particular page within your blog with its own URL or permalink), you are able to go back to the posting menu page without losing anything.
Select your tags and categories (for more information on how to do this, get my blogging visual e-course ‘Creating Tags and Categories’) and publish your post:
And then view your blog by clicking on ‘View Site’ next to your blog’s name:
Congratulations, you have published a picture in your blog!
You may want to put in pictures from past posts, or ones you have stored in your media library. Let’s go have a look at the media library to understand how it works.
Go back to the dashboard through the grey link at the very top of the blog called ‘My Dashboard’ (or by the other methods suggested in my e-course ‘Accessing your blog’):
Click on ‘Library’ under ‘Media’:
If you click on the picture you’ve just uploaded you get its details, including its own URL:
Mousing over the picture title will bring up quick links to Edit | Delete | View
If you click on View, you see your picture’s own page in your blog with its own URL or permalink:
‘Edit’ will bring up your library again, and you can delete your picture using the ‘Delete’ link.
If you want to upload an image from your media library into your posts, position your cursor as before, click on the picture icon, and this time choose ‘Media Library’:
Click on ‘Show’ of the picture you want:
and you’ll see the familiar page to insert your picture into your blog:
There, that’s all the important stuff you need to know about putting pictures into your blog posts.
Don’t forget to visit ‘Make a blog‘ to learn more about the other blogging visual e-courses I have on offer to help you successfully create your blog.
© Alice Elliott 2009
