Drag-and-Drop Featured Image Plugin in WordPress

Sometimes the process of assembling all the pieces of a WordPress post can be a little confusing.  Part of that process is dealing with the image library, particularly the Featured Image.

To associate a featured image you have to click a link which brings up the Media Library.  Then you click another to add media to the library.  Then you browse your computer to find it.

Then you do more steps, and the process is longer than it needs to be.

For a while now I’ve been a fan of a plugin called Drag and Drop Featured Image.  It’s a free plugin on the wordpress.org repo, and it changes the user interface to make the process of setting a featured image easier by making available more options at the very beginning.  Check out these two screenshots:

The default WordPress method is on the left, but on the right you can see we have a couple extra options.

As you can see all it really does is provide early access to the upload link, as well as provide the option to simply drag an image into the Featured Image box.

Just this simple UI change dramatically lessens the time it takes to set a featured image however.  It may not seem like much, but perception matters a great deal, and it FEELS like a dramatically better method of accomplishing this job.

• Click here if you need to ensure every post has a featured image.
• Click here to see what image file types you can upload in WordPress.