# Media

The Media Library holds every photo and file you have uploaded. Upload a photo
once, then use it on as many pages as you like.

Go to **Content**, then **Media**.

![The Media Library. Three numbered marks: 1 on Upload to Library, 2 on the search box, 3 on the All types menu.](../../../assets/screenshots/media-library.png)

*Newest first. Sixteen files here.*

**1. Upload to Library.** Adds files from your computer.

**2. Search by filename.** Type part of a file name to find it.

**3. All types.** Narrows the grid to one kind of file, such as images only.

The two small buttons on the right switch between the grid you see here and a
plain list.

## Uploading

1. Click **Upload to Library**.
2. Find the files on your computer.
3. Pick one, or hold **Cmd** on a Mac or **Ctrl** on Windows and pick several.
4. Click **Open**.

The new files appear at the front of the grid. Big files take a little while,
so give it a moment before you go looking.

The **Upload Media** button on the Dashboard is a shortcut. It brings you to
this screen, where you still click **Upload to Library**.

You can upload photos, video, sound files, PDFs, and Word and Excel files. Try
something else and a red **Upload failed** appears next to the button. Nothing
is added, and you can try again with another file.

:::tip[Tip]
Photos straight off a phone are fine. Your website makes its own smaller copies
of your photos before showing them to a visitor, so a big photo does not slow
your pages down. It only makes the upload itself slower.

Send us a photo that is too small, though, and nothing can fix it. It will look
soft and blurry on a wide screen. Bigger is the safer mistake.
:::

## Using a photo on a page

Photo fields all work the same way, whether you are filling in a block or an
album. The field says **Select image** or **Select media**. Click it.

![The photo picker. Four numbered marks: 1 on the search box, 2 on the Upload button, 3 on the selected file name at the bottom, 4 on the Insert button.](../../../assets/screenshots/media-picker.png)

*Your whole library, in the picker.*

**1. Search by filename.** Same search as the Media screen.

**2. Upload.** Adds a new file without leaving this box.

**3. Selected.** Click a photo and a blue check mark appears on it. Its name shows
down here, so you can check you got the right one.

**4. Insert.** Puts that photo in the field and closes the box.

Then save, and click **Publish**.

## Swapping one photo for another

Once a field has a photo, the button under it reads **Change**.

1. Click **Change**.
2. Pick the new photo.
3. Click **Insert**.
4. Click **Publish**.

Until you publish, visitors keep seeing the old photo.

## Alt text

Alt text is a short line that describes a picture in words.

It is read out to people who cannot see the picture, and it shows in place of
the photo if the picture ever fails to load. Search engines read it too.

To write it, click the file in the Media Library.

![The Media Details box for one photo. Four numbered marks: 1 on Alt Text, 2 on Caption, 3 on the Delete button, 4 on the Save button.](../../../assets/screenshots/media-details.png)

*Media Details, with the size, the width and height, and the date it went up.*

**1. Alt Text.** The description. Type it here, then click **Save**.

**2. Caption.** Optional, and you can leave it empty. Photo albums have their
own caption box, on the photo itself, and that is the one your Gallery page
uses.

**3. Delete.** Read the warning further down before you use this.

**4. Save.** Stores your text.

Good alt text says what is in the picture, in a few plain words:

- **Good:** A new white kitchen with a wooden worktop.
- **Not so good:** IMG_4471.

- **Good:** Two of our installers carrying a bathtub up a backyard path.
- **Not so good:** Photo of our work, best plumbers, bathroom fitting.

Keep it under about fifteen words. No need to start with "a photo of".

:::note[Important]
Write the alt text when you upload, before you put the photo on a page.

The description is copied onto the page at the moment you pick the photo. Come
back and change the alt text later and the pages that already use that photo
keep the old wording. To bring them up to date, open the page, click
**Change**, pick the same photo again, and publish.
:::

In a photo album, the **Caption** you type beside the photo is used as the
description if the file has no alt text of its own.
[Gallery](/content/gallery/) covers albums.

## Deleting a file

:::caution[Warning]
Deleting is final, and the panel does not check where the file is used first.

If a page is showing that photo, the page keeps pointing at a file that is no
longer there. Visitors get a broken picture. You will not get a warning, and
the Trash cannot bring the file back.

Before you delete, click **Live View** on any page you think uses it, and look.
If in doubt, leave the file where it is. An unused file costs you nothing.
:::

1. Click the file in the grid.
2. Click **Delete**, at the bottom left of the box.
3. A message asks **Delete Media?** and says it cannot be undone.
4. Click **Delete** again to confirm.

The file goes from the grid right away.

## Folders

The Media screen itself has no folders. Every file sits in one long grid,
newest first, and you find things with the search box.

Some sites have a **Media Folders** screen under **Plugins** that adds folders
on top of that. [Media Folders](/plugins/media-folders/) explains it. If it is
not in your menu, your site does not use it.