Media management

Media management can be accessed by selecting “Manage all media” in the Site management menu on the Dashboard.

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Or you can manage a specific media type by selecting Manage beside your desired type in the Media section of the Dashboard.

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From the resulting page, you can perform actions on your media items.

Uploading a file to your site

See https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WCMSKB/pages/43454628697

Replacing a file on your site

See https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WCMSKB/pages/43819204851

Linking to files on your site

See https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WCMSKB/pages/44030297068

Deleting a file on your site

See https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/x/VoG-Mwo

Working with the files tab

From the media management page, select the Files tab.

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You will then view a list of all files that includes their size and where they are used.

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You can sort your files by size in descending order to sort files largest to smallest.

By selecting the link in the USED IN column, then selecting the image, you can then edit or delete the image. Please note that cropping does not change the size of the image, only the section of the image that is viewed on the page.

File sizes and image optimization

While you want high resolution images for print, the same isn't true for websites. Large file sizes can slow down your page load time and affect your site’s performance. Pages that load faster are also beneficial for search engine optimization. 

Optimizing images for web can help decrease file sizes without compromising quality. You can use "Export As" in Photoshop, or use a third party website such as TinyPNG.

Example file size goals: Use images 500 KB or less to help your site load quickly. The smaller the image, the smaller the file size. For instance, a profile headshot might be as little as 28 KB and a banner might be 500 KB or more.

It is especially important to mind your file sizes on pages with multiple images. 

Ensure that you are uploading your images at the exact pixel dimensions required (ex. 2400 px X 1600 px for a full width image). Images can be larger than their allotted space, but not smaller - if they are "blown up", they could be blurry.

HTML (web pages) vs. files (PDF, etc.)

Reading a web page online is generally a better experience than reading a file like a PDF. With a web page, the user can choose a font size so the text is easy to read, and the paragraphs are laid out to match the user's preference.

Some things to consider:

• Files don't open in the browser on all platforms. On most mobile devices, a PDF needs to be downloaded and opened in a reader (time and data plan implications).

• Files are more difficult to make accessible than web pages.

• Files take more time to be updated and, if downloaded by the user, can't be updated at all.

• Files don't “reflow” when zoomed in, forcing users to scroll and pan around to see all the content.

• People link to web pages and share them more frequently than PDFs or other documents.

In general, content should be in the native medium whenever possible and on a website, that medium is HTML.

Like web pages, files inserted into WCMS pages have a URL of their own, are indexed by search engines, and can be bookmarked, downloaded or shared by site visitors.