WordPress Media Link Type
If you use the Wordpress Media Uploader to upload something like an image file or a PDF file, then insert that media item into a page or post, you can control what happens when someone clicks the item in the final page or post. For example, you can make the media be unclickable if it’s an image file, or make it show the PDF file contents for a PDF.
You choose what should happen when you add media to a page or post. The right-hand side of the WordPress Add Media screen looks like this:
The “ATTACHMENT DISPLAY SETTINGS” menu controls what happens when you add this media item:
- Media File: clicking the item will take you directly to the file, which is probably appropriate for PDF files, for example.
- Attachment Page: the item will be shown on its own page, as an attachment that most browsers can download and save as a file.
- None: the item will not be clickable.
Older WordPress versions
In WordPress versions before 3.5, the same screen looked like this:
Note the three buttons toward the bottom. They control what happens when you insert this media item into a page or post:
- None: the item will not be clickable.
- File URL: clicking the item will take you directly to the file, which is probably appropriate for PDF files, for example.
- Attachment Post URL: the item will be treated as an attachment that most browsers can download and save as a file.
Changing an existing media item
If you want to change the option for media that you’ve previously added to an existing page or post, you’ll need to remove the media item and then re-add it, unfortunately.
Technical details
For more technical information about how this works, and how you can change the defaults, an external page called “Changing Default WordPress Media Link URL” has more details.
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