Media Pro

What it does

Media Pro replaces the Media screen, and every "choose an image" box in the admin, with one that understands folders. It works on the same files as the built-in Media, so nothing moves when you switch it on.

Folders

Folders go inside folders, as deep as you need, and they are real: a picture in products/shoes has the address /media/products/shoes/red.jpg.

• New folder: the + beside Folders, or right-click in the files.
• Open one: click it on the left or in the grid. The arrow shows what is inside without opening it.
• Move things: drag files or folders onto a folder, on the left or in the grid, or onto a name in the path at the top. Or right-click and choose Move….
• Rename or remove: right-click a folder, or press F2 or Delete with one focused.

Moving and renaming never breaks a page

When a file's address changes:

1. Pages, collections and site settings that use it are updated. Each page saves a revision first.
2. A redirect goes in the SEO Tool's list, so links from other websites and old emails still work. A folder gets one rule that covers everything in it.
3. A [media-gallery] showing that folder follows it.

Blocks, components, forms, menus, your stylesheet and other Tools' own data are checked but not changed: the message after the move says which ones mention the file, and the redirect keeps them working. If you switch the SEO Tool off there are no redirects, so check those by hand.

Uploading

Drop files or a whole folder anywhere on the screen, paste, or use the buttons in the banner. A folder keeps its shape, and everything goes into the folder you have open. Names are tidied to letters, numbers, dots, hyphens and underscores. Uploading over a file of the same name asks first, and the old one is kept in Trash.

The cog holds upload rules: a longest side for pictures, removing camera and location data, and storing as WebP.

Choosing several

Tick a file (hover to see the tick), Ctrl+click, or press Space on it. Shift+click selects a run. While anything is selected, a click selects too. The bar that appears can Move, Tag, Shrink, Zip or send to Trash.

About each file

Click a file for its details:

• Alt text, caption, credit or licence, tags. They stay with the file wherever it goes. Search finds them.
• Used on: everywhere the address appears on the site.
• Replace: new contents, same address. Handy for a price list or a logo.
• Shrink, Edit image, Move, Rename, Trash.

Focal point

Open a picture's details and click the part that matters most, a face for example, then Save details. When a page crops that picture to fit, in a card, a banner or a gallery, that part stays in view. The two small shapes show how it crops.

Smaller pictures for smaller screens

Phones and tablets are offered lighter copies of each picture, so pages load faster. There is nothing to do on your pages: it applies to JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF pictures from your library. The copies are made the first time they are asked for, and your originals are never changed. The cog turns it off.

Alt text from Claude

Included in your plan, with nothing to set up.

• One picture: Suggest beside the Alt text box puts a sentence in the box. It is kept only if you save.
• Several: select them and choose Alt text, or Write alt text for all under No alt text in Tidy up. You check and change each one, then Save.

The pictures you choose are sent to Anthropic, the company behind Claude, smaller than the original. Nothing is saved without you, and Claude can be wrong, so read them. Each site has up to 5,000 suggestions a month, and each person up to 300 an hour.

Tidy up

The sparkle button in the banner reads the whole site and shows:

• Unused: files whose address appears nowhere. Check first: a link from another website or an email cannot be seen from here.
• Duplicates: files with exactly the same contents.
• Big pictures: over 1 MB, with Shrink all.
• No alt text.

Shrink

Makes pictures lighter so pages load faster. Choose the longest side and the quality, and optionally WebP. The original goes to Trash, camera and location data is removed, and a picture that would not get meaningfully smaller is left alone, as are animated pictures and SVG.

Trash

Deleted files stay in Trash for 30 days (the cog changes that), and so does the old version whenever you replace, edit or shrink a picture. A file in Trash is not on your site. Restore puts it back at its address, or beside it under a new name if that address has been taken.

A folder as a gallery on a page

Right-click a folder and choose Copy gallery shortcode, then paste it into a page:

[media-gallery folder="products/shoes" /]

Click a picture to see it full size. Captions and alt text come from each file's details.

Option	What it does
folder	The folder to show.
subfolders="true"	Everything inside as well.
tag="sale"	Only pictures with that tag.
columns="4"	A fixed number of columns. Otherwise they fit the width.
size="14"	The smallest a picture gets when fitting the width, in rem.
gap="1"	The space between, in rem.
ratio="4:3"	Every picture the same shape, cropped around its focal point.
sort="newest"	Newest first. Otherwise by name.
limit="12"	At most this many.
zoom="false"	Turn off the full-size view.
captions="false"	Turn off captions.

If your licence ends

Nothing is lost and no address stops working. The built-in Media screen comes back, showing the files at the top of the library and saying how many more are in folders. Redirects stay in the SEO Tool. Your alt text, captions, credits, tags and Trash are kept for when Media Pro returns.