Working with the media library

The media library holds images and files used across help centre articles, so the same screenshot is not uploaded twelve times.

The media library holds images and files used across help centre articles, so the same screenshot is not uploaded twelve times.

What it holds

Everything uploaded into an article: images, and attachments such as PDFs. Files added while editing an article land here automatically, so the library fills up whether you use it deliberately or not.

Use it while writing

1. Open the article editor.
2. Choose to insert an image or file.
3. Pick from the media library rather than uploading again.

Reusing a file means one copy. Update that copy and every article showing it updates, which is the whole point.

Why duplicates matter

Uploading the same screenshot into six articles gives you six files. When the interface changes, five of them stay wrong, and there is no way to tell which articles use which copy.

This is the most common cause of a help centre with screenshots from three different product versions in it.

Housekeeping

The library shows what is there and where each file is used. Two things are worth doing occasionally: deleting what nothing references, and finding images that appear in many articles, since those are the ones to update first when something changes.

See also

• Inserting images
• What content blocks are