Keeping Media Files Organized

If you've been running your blog for any length of time, you can easily forget what files you've uploaded by using the WordPress uploader. Lisa used to have to log in to her Web server via FTP and view the Uploads folder to see what she had in there.

Now, the WordPress Media Library allows you to conveniently and easily discover which files are in your Uploads folder.

To find an image, video, or audio file you've already uploaded by using the file uploader and to use that file in a new post, follow these steps:

1. Click the Upload Media icon to open the File Uploader window.
2. Click the Media Library link at the top of the window.

   All the files you've ever uploaded to your blog appear because of the File Uploader feature (see Figure 4-3). Files you uploaded through other methods, such as FTP, don't appear in the Media Library.

3. Select the file that you want to reuse and click the Show link.
4. In the settings menu that appears, set the options for that file: Title, Caption, Description, Link URL, Order, Alignment, and Size.
5. Click the Insert into Post button.

   The correct HTML code is inserted into the Post text box.

Figure 4-3: The Media Library shows all the files you've ever uploaded to your blog.

If you want to view only the files you've uploaded, click the Edit link in the Media menu, found in the left navigation menu of the Dashboard, which opens the Media Library page.

The Media Library page lists all the files you've ever uploaded to your WordPress blog. By default, the page displays all types of files, but you can click the Images, Audio, or Video link to specify which file type you want to see (as shown in Figure 4-4).

You can do the following tasks on the Media Library page:

• Filter media files by date. If you want to view all media files that were uploaded in July of 2010, select that date from the drop-down list and click the Filter button; the page reloads and displays only the media files uploaded in the month of July, 2010.
• Search media files by using a specific keyword. If you want to search your Media Library for all files that reference kittens, then you type the word kittens in the Search box in the upper-right side of the Media Library page. Then click the Search Media button; the page reloads and displays only media files that contain the keyword or tag kittens.
• Delete media files. To delete files, click the small white box that appears to the left of the file's thumbnail on the Manage Media page; then click the Delete button, which appears at the top left of the page. The page reloads, and the media file you just deleted is now gone.
• View media files. On the Manage Media page, click the thumbnail of the file you want to view. The actual file opens in your Web browser. If you need the URL of the file, you can copy the permalink of the file from your browser's address bar.

Figure 4-4: The WordPress Media Library, displaying only audio files.