Media

The next menu item in the Settings menu list is Media; click the Media link to make the Media Settings page open (see Figure 3-7).
On the Media Settings page, you can configure the options for how your image files (graphics and photos) are resized for use in your blog.

The first set of options on the Media Settings page deals with images.
WordPress automatically resizes your images for you in three different sizes.
The dimensions are referenced in pixels by width, and then height. (For
example, 150 x 150 means 150 pixels in width by 150 pixels in height.)

✦ Thumbnail Size: The default is 150 x 150; enter the width and height of
your choice. Select the Crop Thumbnail to Exact Dimensions check box to
resize the thumbnail exactly to the width and height you specify. Deselect
this check box to make WordPress resize the image proportionally.
✦ Medium Size: The default is 300 x 300; enter the width and height
numbers of your choice.
✦ Large Size: The default is 1024 x 1024; enter the width and height
numbers of your choice.

In Book VI, we go into detail about WordPress themes and templates, including how you can add image sizes other than just these three. You can use these additional images sizes in and around your Web site, as well as a feature called Featured Image for your posts and articles.

The second set of options on the Media Settings page deals with embed-
ded links and files, such as video and audio files. Select the check box that
says Attempt to Automatically Embed All Plain Text URLs if you want your
WordPress blog to automatically attach a hyperlink to a text-based URL that
you type into your posts or pages. Activating this option means that you
don’t have to copy and paste the full code given to you by services such
as YouTube — instead, you simply paste the hyperlink to the video, and
WordPress automatically does the video embedding for you.
Next, set the width and height for the maximum size you want embedded files to be within your post and pages. Embedded items include video players and audio players that appear within your post or page.
Finally, the last set of options on the Media Settings page is the Uploading
Files section. Here, you can tell WordPress where to store your uploaded
media files:

✦ Store Uploads in This Folder: Type the server path to the folder on your

Web server where you want your file uploads to be stored. The default is wp-content/uploads. You can specify any folder you want. Just be sure that the folder you specify has permissions (chmod) set to 755 so that it’s writable. (See Book II, Chapter 2 for more information on setting file permissions.)
✦ Full URL Path to Files (Optional): You can also type the full URL path
to the Uploads folder as an optional setting. (The full URL path is some-
thing like http://yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads.)
✦ Organize My Files into Month and Year-Based Folders: Select this
check box to have WordPress organize your uploaded files in folders by
month and by year. Files you upload in September 2010, for example, would be in the following folder: /wp-content/uploads/2010/09/. Likewise, files you upload in October 2010, would be in /wp-content/ uploads/2010/10/.
This check box is selected by default; uncheck it if you don’t want WordPress to organize your files by month and year.

Be sure to click the Save Changes button to save your configurations!