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How to Add Post Thumbnails

February 21, 2011

Posted by Ivan under WP For Users

17 Comments

In previous versions of WordPress (prior to 2.9 if I remember right) there wasn’t in-built possibility to use post thumbnails. That’s why some themes (the best of them) used custom fields to hold a related image URI. Some of themes retrieved the first image from posts. Each theme had its own method to store/get the image and that’s why changing a theme was a quite time-taking process.

It seems now that was ages ago. Currently the most of the WordPress themes support in-built WordPress functionality of post thumbnails. But probably it’s not obvious how to set them because I receive questions of them every day.

Firstly,

What are the post thumbnails?

A post thumbnail is a small picture that displays near the post excerpt on pages like index page, category and other pages where a list of post appears.

How to set a thumbnail for a Post?

Generally there are 4 steps to do this:

Create a post
Upload an image to your blog
Set the image as featured image
Save the post

Create the post

Ok, it looks obvious and I will not describe the step :) Just note that you can use any of your old posts for that.

Upload an image to your blog

Now when you are on the add/edit post page there is the link “Set featured image” in the right sidebar. Just click the link:

You’ll be taken to the “Set featured image” window:

As you see the window is exactly the same as any other “Add Media” window. So you can upload an image there. Or you can use any of previously uploaded images from Media Library.

Set the image as featured image

After you’ve uploaded an image, click “Show”. At the very bottom of the image properties you’ll see the the link “Use as featured image”. Click it:

After you click the “Use as featured image” link, you’ll see that the featured image is set for the post:

Save the post

Nothing new here. Just save the post.

That’s all. The post thumbnail is set!

17 Responses to How to Add Post Thumbnails

365storyMarch 9, 2011 at 20:38

Thanks for this useful information. I am truly enjoying your theme! Keep it up.

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LauraMarch 13, 2011 at 0:44

I haven’t been using featured or thumbnail images or post excerpts so I am still figuring those out for Clear Line. Not sure yet how it will turn out as my images are all sizes in the posts and I don’t want to create an edited version every time for the featured image. Will use this post to see how it turns out with the image as is.

But, I really like the theme. It is clean, crisp looking even. I’ve already left a link for others to try it on the CMFAds.com forum.

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LauraMarch 13, 2011 at 0:50

By the way, you’ve got a typo. You typed “snow” instead of “show”. Made me think twice but realized it was a typo.

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irrimiriMarch 26, 2011 at 11:36

Hello, thanks so much for the explanation. But for me the text ‘set to featured image’ doesn’t appear when I open the image window.
I have reinstalled it, but without result. The wordpress I installed was the latest version.
Here is a screencap. It says in the title that it’s the featured image, but it doesn’t shop the option to select it like in your screencap. It’s a pity I can’t use this pretty theme
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/irrimiriam/Screenshot2011-03-26at093241.png

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- IvanApril 8, 2011 at 10:58
  
  Please do exactly as described. Step by step.
  
  Reply
Matthew RycraftApril 1, 2011 at 2:54

I’d like to say thank you for your free Template, truly fantastic. I’ve never been happier with my blog.

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bloginaApril 6, 2011 at 14:57

“After you click the “Use as featured image” link, you’ll see that the featured image is set for the post”…exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

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MikeApril 18, 2011 at 16:05

Hi Ivan,

How could I set up a size of my thumbnails?

Your theme is very good.

Mike

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- IvanMay 8, 2011 at 21:53
  
  See “Post List” in the Clear Line theme options
  
  Reply
gioMay 12, 2011 at 1:07

Thanks very very much for your fee theme is the best i never seen….grazie fantastico!!!!!

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SuzueMay 16, 2011 at 21:14

Thank you for the tutorial and for the theme Aesthete 1.2.1
I am however, stuck! When I get to this part:

‘Now when you are on the add/edit post page there is the link “Set featured image” in the right sidebar.’ ……

I don’t have this feature in the right sidebar.
Any help you could offer would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for your time
Suzie

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- IvanJune 29, 2011 at 10:34
  
  Aesthete theme does not support the feature
  
  Reply
MeghanMay 31, 2011 at 21:37

After going through a dozen themes, I finally found one that I like — it has a lot of user-friendly options that provide flexibility. I haven’t found any issues with it yet. Thanks very much for sharing your work with the world. :)

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PulkitJuly 7, 2011 at 12:09

I like to include an image at the top of my post and have the same image as the featured image. Because of this, I’m getting the featured image and the same image below it in my post excerpts on the frontpage.
Is there any workaround for avoiding the post excerpt image from showing up?

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- IvanJuly 7, 2011 at 12:49
  
  Sure. Just fill the “excerpts” field on post creation page.
  
  Reply
  - PulkitJuly 14, 2011 at 7:56
    
    I could do that, but won’t that become the text that shows on SERP instead of Google neatly picking out the text with the searched keyword and bolding it?
    
    Reply
PRADEEPSeptember 9, 2011 at 0:11

Thanks a lot for such a nice theme Ivan, its truly have all the features to compete with a premium theme.

So much option to customize!!!

I was looking for a DONATE button at least :)
Keep it up :)

Regards
Pradeep

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