Featured Image suddenly appeared
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I’ve been setting featured images on my posts for a long time. It’s how I ensure that twitter and facebook shares of the posts pick up my chosen image to represent the blog post.
In my most recent post, the feature image actually replaced the header image of the blog which I did not expect. Why did this only happen for one blog post and not for all the others? I prefer it not to happen for any, is there a way to stop it?
The post in question is this one:
I found a thread on here that said you can turn on/off featured images in the customizer, but I don’t have a section for Featured Images in my customizer. I use the “Twenty Eleven” theme which says of featured images:-
“Included are … support for featured images (as custom header images on posts and pages and as large images on featured “sticky” posts)”
so how come I don’t have a customizer section for them?
Anyway, hope someone can enlighten me about this.
Cheers,
MoragThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi!
I suspect the reason that it a featured image has not replaced the header image in the past is that the featured image for a given post is not wide enough to fill the header image space.
Usually, if a newer theme supports featured images as header images, there is a section in the Customizer called Content Options. You can choose whether or not to display featured images as header images on single posts and pages.
Unfortunately, I just tried out the theme and it looks like Twenty Eleven doesn’t support turning off featured images in the header.
Hope this sheds some light!
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Thank you @nikolnieto, I think what you’re saying is that if I set the featured image on that post to a smaller version of the photo, it won’t replace the header image. Am off to try that out.
Should I be reporting to WordPress staff that they have a theme that supports featured images with the controls expected to customize them?
Cheers,
Morag -
That should say:-
Should I be reporting to WordPress staff that they have a theme that supports featured images without the controls expected to customize them?
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Did you set the featured image to a smaller photo? I noticed your header image isn’t being replaced now.
I’ll tag this with modlook to see what staff thinks. I’m not sure, but I’d expect them to possibly file a bug report, though they may also suggest you update to a newer theme. WordPress.com releases a new default theme each year, and each new theme always has the newest features. I’m not sure about backward compatibility re: newer features with older themes.
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Yes, and it worked!! Thank you.
Oh, I didn’t realise that I should change themes. I sort of assumed that once you picked a theme you could stick to it.
Thanks for the tag. Will await to see what staff says.
Cheers,
Morag -
Hey Morag!
It’s not that you need to change themes. As long as you’re happy with your theme, you should keep it!
But when WordPress releases new features, there’s no guarantee that they’ll work with their older themes. I’m not sure how far back their default compatibility goes. It’s up to individual theme developers to implement these new features. In this case, the theme developer is the WordPress team.
But I think it’s easier and better from a customer support standpoint for them to release a new theme each year and give users the choice to upgrade, rather than to automatically upgrade everyone’s blog without their knowledge or consent. But this means that sometimes older themes are left in the dust. Not that WordPress.com won’t provide support for them any longer—that’s what we’re doing now—but they may not update older themes to utilize these newer features.
For what it’s worth, Facebook (OGP) and Twitter both recommend using images at least 600px wide for your featured image. The Twenty Eleven theme recommends images 1000px wide or larger for featured images to become header images. So I think as long as you’re between 600px and 1000px, you’re alright!
I would personally recommend upgrading too, though. I have a strong affinity for default WordPress themes, and I find that migrating from an older one to a newer one is quite painless—and seamless.
If you upgrade, you’ll have the option to turn off featured images as header images, plus lots of other newer features to make your site truly your own.
But you should feel no pressure to update your theme if you really love the one you’re using!
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Hi there,
In my most recent post, the feature image actually replaced the header image of the blog which I did not expect. Why did this only happen for one blog post and not for all the others? I prefer it not to happen for any, is there a way to stop it?
This is how the Twenty-Eleven theme works. On a single post or page the featured image for that post or page will always replace the site header as long as it’s 1000pixels wide or bigger.
This is indicated by the Featured Image Header tag on the theme’s documentation:
https://wordpress.com/theme/twentyeleven
As long as your featured images are smaller than 1000px wide, they will not automatically be used as a header image.
The Content Options @nikolnieto refers to above is a fairly new feature that is not supported on this particular theme. But that also would not apply here – the featured image settings in Content Options determine whether or not featured images appear in the posts themselves, usually between the header image and the post title. As far as I know it has no effect on featured image headers in themes that support that particular feature.
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