Media Library Basics

By the end of this module you will be able to upload images to your website, find them again later, and prepare photos properly before uploading.

• Open the Media Library and understand what lives there
• Upload a new image from your computer
• Search for images you have uploaded before
• Fill in the “Alternative Text” field and know why it matters
• Size photos sensibly before uploading

1. From the dashboard, click Media in the left menu. You will see a grid of every image and document on your website.
2. To upload: click Add New Media File at the top, then either drag a file from your computer straight onto the page, or click Select Files and choose it. When the progress bar finishes, the file appears at the front of the grid.
3. After every upload, do one thing: click the new image to open its details, and fill in Alternative Text — one plain sentence describing the picture (“Staff members at the 2026 annual general meeting”). Screen-reader users and search engines both rely on it.
4. To find an image later: use the search box (it searches file names and titles) or the date filter. Tip: files keep the name they had on your computer — naming photos descriptively before uploading (“agm-2026-group-photo.jpg”, not “IMG_4821.jpg”) makes them findable forever.
5. Before uploading photos, size them. Photos straight off a phone are enormous and slow your site down. Anything destined for a normal page area needs at most about 2000 pixels on its longest side. On Windows: right-click → Open with Photos → Resize. On Mac: open in Preview → Tools → Adjust Size. When in doubt, upload as-is and tell GM&F — slow is fixable, but do mention it.
6. Deleting: don’t. Deleting a file removes it from every page that uses it, leaving broken images behind. Storage is not a problem; broken pages are.

• Upload one photo from your computer, give it Alternative Text, then find it again using search.
• Search for an image you know is already on your site (a staff photo, a logo) and open its details.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Deleting images to “tidy up.” If it is in the library, assume a page somewhere uses it. Delete nothing.
• Uploading huge phone photos untouched. One 8MB photo can make a page noticeably slower for every visitor.
• Uploading the same file five times because you couldn’t find it. Search by name first — re-uploads pile up.
• Skipping Alternative Text. It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between an accessible site and an inaccessible one.
• Expecting an upload to appear on a page by itself. Uploading only stores the file. Placing it on a page is a separate step — that is Module 7.