Learn how to organize your Media Library and feel in control of your media items.

This month we dig into the media library, you know, that place where everything you upload to your pages and posts gets stuffed to use later. It is a rather simple concept, but oh, what you can do with it, if only it was organized. We are in luck today as we are talking all about the media library.

Specifically, we’re looking at:

How to identify the types of media you can add to the library.
Filtering the library contents by type or by date, or even by owner.
Find the right media item by searching the description.
Organize the items with the help of a free plugin.

Our “Topics from the Trenches” segment looked at a question from the audience. I really enjoy this segment to address questions that come up in real-time. It seems that topics can tangent off into all kinds of WordPress-related areas. Today’s question was related to the topic. Sort of.

But First, A Few Quick Announcements

WordPress 5.9.2 was released on March 11. This update was a security and maintenance release. Given it is a security release you are urged to update your site(s) as soon as you can.
Our April meeting falls on the 4th Saturday of the month. PACS will stay virtual through the remained of this program year. The 2022-2023 year is still up in the air.
I am actively soliciting ideas for future meetings.

Topics from the Trenches

Anyone, anyone? Yes, in the back!

Ron asked about image sizing and building a row on a post using the Beaver Builder page builder. Ron’s site has a page where his layout calls for 2 or 3 images across the page with each image having a heading under it followed by the 2nd line of text. The question was about how to get the images to be displayed at a similar height and readable on both the desktop browser and a mobile device.

The recommended way to go with this requirement is to use the gallery module. The images can be displayed as thumbnails or a collage with the page builder handling the resizing.

We did a quick demo using a test page and reviewed the results. Looking good.

Topic of the Month (totm) – Media Library Organization

Identify the types of media you can add to your Media Library

When you open your Media Library, it displays the default grid view. In this view, thumbnails of images, audio icons, pdfs are all arranged in a grid structure. Here you are able to filter through your media to find what you are looking for. At the top next to the grid view icon, you can filter your media by media type, and date. You can view any media that is unattached to any posts or pages. This means the media is in your Media Library, but you haven’t used it anywhere on your site.

Filter media by type or date.

Next to the grid view icon, you can filter your media by media type, and date. The all media items dropdown allows you to select by the types of media, such as images, audio, video, documents, and even spreadsheets. The all dates dropdown allows you to select by date which media displayed. You can quickly find media you have uploaded in September or October, or you may choose to view all.

Search for media by description

On the right side of the screen is a search box where you can enter a word or series of words to search for specific things in your library. The search results will be updated as you type. For this function to work effectively, you do need to add a description to your media items as you upload them.

Organize media items with the help of a free plugin.

Once your media library grows, it can start feeling a bit disorganized. There are ways to categorize your media. We looked at a plugin to achieve this goal. Remember that plugins help you to extend the functionality of your site as an app would on your mobile device. There are 1000s of free plugins to search from in the WordPress directory. Let’s make our way to wordpress.org/plugins and click on add new. I am going to type media plugin organizer into the search. I will be selecting an open source plugin called Media Library Organizer. This plugin will enhance the WordPress user interface, adding key features needed for bulk organization as well as searching and filtering of media. There are many other plugins to choose from in the directory. We install and activate the Media Library Organizer plugin.

Now when we view the Media Library, we have a new left sidebar called Media Categories. You have options to add, edit, and delete. We ceated a new category named it ‘landscape’ and another named ‘widelife’. Then I will click on bulk select and choose the appropriate images, and drag and drop them to their new category. I am then able to click on any of the categories to see the images associatged in that category. We are able to move images between categories, or remove them completely. It revolutionizes the organization of the media library.

We pointed out that the categories do not change the way the media files are organized on disk. If the library was set up to store files by years and months they are still stored that way. This prevents changing any of the image URLs which would break all the links to them on your website.

That was about it. Time sure flies when you get down into this stuff.

See you next month.

Resources & Links Referenced

Source Post: Organizing your Media Library

Notes & Questions

Here is the YouTube video recording of the session.

Featured Image Photo Credit – captured from https://fontawesome.com/v4/icon/video-camera

Organizing Your Media Library