Adding Files to the Media Library

The Media Library

*Helpful Tip: There are a couple of situations when the T4 system will not allow you to upload a file to the media library and will give an error message:

• If you try to add a file to a folder you do not have access rights to. 
• If a file is too large.
• If a file is not the correct file type. 
• If the file name has empty spaces or odd characters in it such as ~ # @ ' " etc. 

Adding A File To The Media Library

The first step to adding a file to the media library is to select the folder you wish to add the file to. 

Once this folder is selected, and highlighted in blue, you will see a green +Add media button on the right side of the Main Workspace.

Once you've selected to add media, you will be taken to a pop-up window (shown below). At this point you will need to supply some information about the file you are uploading:

1. Media file: You can drag and drop a file you wish to add to the Media Library into the Media file box or click on the box to select the file you wish to upload.
   
   
2. Name: Ensure you add a descriptive Name - this becomes the name of the media item to Media library users. For Microsoft Office and PDF documents, this is often used as the default link text.
3. Description/Alt Text: This field is very important. The description/atl text should be concise, and describe what an image displays in a way that would be helpful to people who use screen readers to understand what an image portrays. 
   
   The description also helps improve the search engine optimization of a site, so a good description is very important. 
    
4. Media Type, Syntax highlighting language and Media language dependence: These can be left as their default values. 
   
   
5. Keywords: Include some Keywords that can be used when searching for media in the media library. Keywords used to be used by search engines to help rank websites, but this is no longer the case. 

Name, Description/Alt text and Keywords are the fields the media library uses to search for a specific file when someone uses the search feature. If files are not given proper information when they are added to the media library then they are much harder to search for. Do not use names like "image1", "image2" etc. for your file names. Use descriptive name such as "open-house-2019".  

If you are satisfied with the entries, then click Save changes. Once you do this your file will be added to the media library. 

 

 

IMPORTANT!! When working with files that are updated periodically, such as PDFs of Course Offerings, Lab Schedules, Policy documents, application forms, etc. it is critically important to follow this simple procedure: Save the file with the same file name as the one it is replacing. Try not to use a date in the file name. NOTE: The file name is different from the "name" field when you load a new image into the media library. The name is just the title the image is given in the media library, the file name is the name you give the file on your own computer when you first save it.  In the Media Library, locate the file to be replaced.  Either click on the media name – or – click the blue Action button on the right side for that media item and select “Edit” In the Media file box, choose the updated file. No other fields need to change. Once selected, click the blue Save changes button in the bottom right corner of the Edit window. This will properly update the file and remove the old file from the site index. Not using this method may cause links to break, and the old files to remain on the server and searchable, creating confusing results for site users.

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Next Lesson - Editing Image in the Media Library »