WordPress’ Featured Image is one of those easiest, yet kind of confusing features.
The Featured Image is a visual representation of a post or page. Also its official name is Featured Image, it also been called Post Thumbnail with even the WordPress codex calling it that!
It is a WordPress theme feature, which allows WordPress theme developers to add support for using a representative image for posts, pages, or custom post types.
This visual representation used by themes is to enhance the look of your blog by adding some visual breaks to all the text. This is where featured images get tricky. Their use is entirely theme dependent, so how or when they are used changes from theme to theme.
USAGE OF FEATURED IMAGES
As I’ve mentioned above, how or when Featured Images are used on your blog is almost entirely theme-dependent.
A theme authors can add featured image support into their themes by adding a simple snippet into their theme’s functions.php file. And also configure how to handle image uploads by WordPress. They can select thumbnail sizes, style them, and selectively turn the display of featured images ON and OFF.
Let’s discuss about some of the ways that themes use featured Images.
In Excerpts
This is one of the most common way featured Images are used. Featured image will display alongside excerpts in a blog pages or archive pages.
In Sliders
Similar to the use in excerpts, many themes (and plugins!) use a post’s Featured Image to display in a slider.
In Posts / Pages
The another one usage of this feature is WordPress powered news and entertainment websites which use thumbnail images with each article on their front page.
Mostly, themes will include the featured image in a post. This may leads an issue when bloggers add the same image in the post itself and in the Featured Image option causing a double image issue. This is why a lot of themes don’t automatically add featured images onto the post.
In Widgets
Same as sliders or excerpts, themes or plugins use the Featured Image when displaying posts on the sidebar or footer area for widgets such as “Popular Posts” or “Recent Posts”.
HOW TO ADD A FEATURED IMAGE
So now, you know that what a featured Image is and how they are used within WordPress, let’s talk about how you can add them!
Users can use featured images option to upload image directly by clicking on the “set featured image” link in the Post Edit screen. A Theme authors can also set a default image to be displayed when no image is found. If you are unable to find the “set featured image” link make sure that it is enabled under screen options in the top right of the admin panel.
If you cannot find the “set featured image” link, scroll all the way to the top of the post editor, click on “Screen Options” and enable the Featured Image option is enabled.
It is said that a picture speaks more than a thousand words. An images added to your post, which really can signify to the user what your post is all about. Also the featured image on your post can be displayed at different places on your website.
No doubt WordPress has a very easy and simple user interface to add feature images and with minimal code you can get to display the post featured image in your theme. WordPress also comes with more advance functionality of featured images. Wordpress developers always work hard to customize and develop new features and use according to your needs. So have fun while creating new post with featured images in your WordPress blog.
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