What is: Attachment?

If you’re familiar with sending emails, then you know that an attachment is a file that is “attached” or sent along with the text of the email. In WordPress, attachments work quite similarly and are media files that are “attached” or included in the content of a post or page.

 

When you upload media to the library of your WordPress site, those files are not attached to any particular post or page. But when you are creating a new post or page, you can choose which media file will be used in that post or page. And those media files are known as the attachment to the post or page.

 

Note: Media files can be attached to multiple posts/pages at the same time!

 

If you’re simply administering a WordPress website, then the only time you’ll deal with attachment is when creating a new post or page. But developers use template tags to control how media files are displayed when they are attached to a post or page. For example, you might want to control the size or location of how an attachment is displayed.

 

Note: From your admin area, you can click on “Media” and then “Library” to learn more about which posts/pages that media files have been attached to. Click on an individual media file, and you’ll see where (if anywhere) the media file has been attached (“Uploaded to”). For even more information, click on “View attachment page” at the bottom of the screen to see how the media file has been used in the associated post(s) or page(s).

 

Keep in mind that if you delete a post or page, the attached media file will not be deleted but the media file will no longer be associated or attached to that post or page.

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Jamie Spencer

My name is Jamie Spencer and I have spent the past 10 years building money making blogs. After growing tired of the 9-5, commuting and never seeing my family I decided that I wanted to make some changes and launched my first blog. Since then I have launched lots of successful niche blogs and after selling my survivalist blog I decided to teach other people how to do the same.