Post Thumbnails were first introduced in the release of WordPress 2.9. Since the theme structure has slightly changed in 3.0, we have put together a short tutorial showing you how to add Post Thumbnails to your articles and posts.
Thumbnail is an image that is chosen as the representative image for Posts, Pages or Custom Post Types. The display of these images is up to the theme. This is especially useful for “magazine-style” themes where each post has an image.
You will require basic understanding of WordPress Theme development and PHP. This tutorial will be split into two parts, one for WordPress Admin amendments and one for PHP updates to the core theme files.
WordPress Modifications
Let us use the new default theme to showcase this tutorial, but it can be easily adapted into any theme upon release. First you should already have the WordPress beta installed and none of the code should be modified.
Set a featured image for your post. In this example it is best to use one that is rectangular, so we have gone for the WordPress logo.
Now the Featured Image widget should display the WordPress Logo as shown below.
Post Thumbnails are getting more popular every day. Many magazine themes associate an image with a specific post which they later display on either homepage or on the post page.
You can display a thumbnail with your posts on both the post page and the category page. In older versions, this functionality was obtained with the use of custom-field method which was not very user friendly.
In WordPress Dashboard, you will see a following option like this in the sidebar of your Write Post Panel:
Click on the link, and you will be taken to an upload image page. Upload the picture, and you will see something like this:
Just click on the link that says use it as thumbnail. Once you do that, you will see a screen like this:
With WordPress, you have access to thousands of plug-ins. Most of them are free and can extend the functionality of your website. As your business expands and web technology continues to evolve, WordPress will grow along with you.
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