How to set an image as thumbnail

Hey, thanks for reaching out & please accept my sincerest apologies for not responding anytime sooner (these summer holidays took its toll —?sorry)!

As for your inquiry — simple, just set that image (that you would like to use as thumbnail) as featured. This way our plugin will use that image instead.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any other questions what-so-ever — I’ll gladly help!

Take care & have a nice day!

Best,
Silvo

Hi Silvo,

thanks for your reply. I use the woothemes metamorphosis theme and it allows me to set the desired image as featured image. Although the image that I want is set as featured image, the image used by the plugin is the first image in the post.

Thanks~

Hey!

How do you set your image as featured? Is your theme already using some other images as featured (such as the header or the footer)?

Let me know, we’ll find a way! Take care!

Best,
Silvo

In my theme, I can set a featured image for every post… On the page to add a new post, there is a field below for me to upload the feature image. If no feature image is uploaded, the first image will be used.

You can check out my site. https://www.revivalmindset.com/

On the home page, the featured image for the post, 5 Things Twenty-Somethings can Learn from Evan Roberts is an image of a guy in his twenties. However, the related post thumbnail for the post, is the first image in the post, which is the Welsh flag.

You can see the related post thumbnail for that article in the post, How to Pray

Thanks for your efforts! I really appreciate it

The theme doesn’t use the website logo in the header or the footer for the featured image. It only uses either the one uploaded in the field or the first image in the post.

I hope I’m painting a clear picture! ??

Hey, thanks for your detailed feedback, much appreciated!

I have another question for you — what if you create a whole new post with several images, but if you set one as featured (not the first one) before the first publishing? Does the problem persist?

There’s one another solution for your problem, but you’ll have to install another related posts plugin instead of this one you are currently using. Don’t worry, it’s ours and it’s basically identical to the one you are already using, except that it has a ‘Custom field’ option for your thumbnails.

First, go to your create-new-post page or — even better — in one of your previous already-published-posts. On the right top corner you should see the ‘Screen Options’ button; click on it for the drop-down menu to open. After that, tick the box next to ‘Custom Fields’.

Now you should be able to see a new box below the editor called ‘Custom Fields’. Create new custom field, name your image that you would later like to use it as a thumbnail for this specific post (something like “Featured thumbnail”), enter the URL of the image you would like to use as a thumbnails and finish with the click on the button “Add Custom Field”. Of course, don’t forget to save this draft, or publish the post when you’re ready.

After that, visit the settings of (y)our plugin and scroll down to the bottom. The option called “Use custom field for thumbnails” should now be available, tick the box next to it, and select the value you’ve set up before. Here’s a screenshot for easier navigation: https://cl.ly/image/2K3t0L1L2Q1E

Now, the important thing is this: the value of the Custom Field stays the same for every new post, while the URL of the image (obviously) changes. In other words: the name of the Custom Field stays the same, images change. That’s because once you set up your settings in the plugin settings (when you choose which value our the Custom Field our plugin should use for the thumbnails), you won’t have to change it again in the future.

Once you have set this up, you just add a Custom Field with every new post, set the image you want to use for the thumbnail, while the name stays the same. Also worth noting is that you should keep the images you want to use for thumbnails as square as possible and that they’re not too big. The perfect size would be anything bigger than 150×150 pixels, but that is not that crucial. Just don’t use the biggest images you can find, because this can return you some problems.

Sorry for this long, too-long reply and please?— do not hesitate to get back to me if anything was unclear or if you have any kind of additional questions. I’m also available for a video-call anytime you want, if you think you need my assistance! I’ll be more than glad!

Looking forward to your reply! Take care!

Best,
Silvo

Hi Silvo,

I’m really impressed by your reply and your effort. I have 1 quick question about the Related Posts by Zemanta plugin… Does it automatically recommend related posts from other sites or am I able to hand pick the posts or sites that I want to recommend?

Thanks

Cheers~

Hey!

Well, no, the ‘Related Posts by Zemanta’ plugin does not automatically insert related posts from around the web, since we really would not want to take such a big responsibility of recommending stuff without your editorial approval.

But our other plugin called ‘Editorial Assistant by Zemanta’ does just that — it recommends you relevant, quality content from around the web, while you are writing your new posts (in other words: as you go). It’s best you try it out on our demo page, to see it action: https://www.zemanta.com/demo/

And here’s the link to the plugin, if you wish to install it on your WP Dashboard:

Either way — let me know how it goes or if you have any additional questions. I’m here to help! ??

Take care & have a nice week ahead!

Best,
Silvo

Hi Silvo,

Thanks for your solutions.. I’ll reply you on each of them..

1. Set featured image before publishing
Nope, it doesn’t work. When I set a featured image that is not the first image in the post before publishing, the featured image is still the first image in the post.

2. WordPress Related Posts
That’s the plugin that I’ve been using. And I do believe that Related Posts by Zemanta has the same function that enables users to “Use custom field for thumbnails”. In any case, I tried it and it works! All the images that I used as featured image are used as the thumbnail now. And you’re right, the images need to be square. The strange thing is that, the plugin will generate nice square thumbnails from the 1st image in the post although they are the typical 4 x 6 ratio for photos.. So I’m wondering why the plugin doesn’t do the same when with the thumbnails from custom fields?

3. Editorial Assistant by Zemanta
I’ve also tried this plugin.. However, it does not have the same theme options for the thumbnails as the WordPress Related Posts plugin. I really like the bigger thumbnails but this plugin doesn’t seem to allow me to choose a theme which has bigger thumbnails.

Thanks for all your suggestions! I really appreciate it! =)

Regarding solution 2, I just think that the plugin will be better if it can generate thumbnails using the custom filed the same way that it does using the first image from the post. This way, when square images are used, the thumbnail should appear exactly the same, and if photo sized images are used, the plugin will generate nice thumbnails without distorting the image.

On my end, I can work around this for now.. I only have a couple of posts that are using featured images that are not the first image.. So I only need to make these images square before uploading them. As for the rest of the posts that are using the first image as the feature image, I just need to manually remove the URL in the featured image field so that the thumbnail will not be distorted.

Thanks once again, Silvo~

Hey, glad you got back to me with such a detailed response — much appreciated!

Well, this plugin (WordPress Related Posts) and the ‘Related Posts by Zemanta’ plugin have to different thumbnailers, which extract images to thumbnails in two different ways, which is why I suggested you to try the other one, if the first one was causing you problems.

The ‘Editorial Assistant by Zemanta’ has only one default theme, yes, but I’m afraid we cannot change this in a reasonable time scale. We are working on some other cool features though. Bear with us. ??

And I am really glad you got your hand around these problems you were experiencing — I certainly wish these would have not appeared in the first place, but then again, we cannot scale that much (although we would wish so). But I’m glad I could be of any help.

As I am in the future, if you would have any kind of questions or problems (well, let’s hope not, though!) — I’ll do my best!

Take care & have a nice weekend ahead!

Best,
Silvo

Hi Silvo,

Thanks for your help. The information has been very useful in finding a scale-able solution. =)

Cheers~

Hey, I’m very glad that I could be of any help and — most importantly — that we have found a viable solution! ??

As always — if you have any questions or if you stumble upon any problems (let’s hope not though!), do not hesitate to let me know! I’ll gladly help!

Take care & have a nice day!

Best,
Silvo

I read the replys/solutions regarding setting a specific thumbnail in a post.

I’m using Plano Black and I cannot find any of the solutions. I do not see anything, or anywhere, to lock the photo of my choice as the thumbnail in a post.

Almost all my posts have just one photograph, but it seems to be grabbing a piece of the banner as a thumbnail option, and using it as the first choice.

Our last post has one photo but shows the unwanted thumbnail first when posted on websites, like Facebook. Link to post – https://theredsmusic.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/rick-shaffers-new-video-%E2%88%8E-some-say/

Is there a solution for the Plano Black theme?

Thanks.

Theresa Marchione
Tarock Music

Hey Theresa, thanks for reaching out, I’d love to help!

Some themes can have their banners set as the featured image, which is probably (hopefully) the reason why that one is picked up as a thumbnail for most of your related posts (if not all).

But our thumbnailer works more or less in the following order:

Custom field value > Featured image > First image in blog post > Default image for blog posts without images

But I’m not sure to what exactly are you referring to right now, since I don’t see any of your related posts in your blog posts — do you wish to have some other thumbnail set when you are sharing your blog posts on Facebook or are there any related posts on your blog with incorrect thumbnails? If so, can you send us an example link?

Let me know, I’d love to help you out! Take care & have a nice day!

Best,
Silvo