Place photos and video in your writing

How media placement works when creating content: the automatic order, and pinning a photo or video to an exact spot in the text with double curly braces or the Place media button. Use when someone asks how to put a picture in a specific place, move an image between paragraphs, pin media, control photo order, why an image moved after publishing, or what the curly-brace or bracket markers in a body mean.

  1. 1

    Open a create form and add your media to Media for Display Open

  2. 2

    Automatic: leave the text alone — media appears in tray order, spread through your piece

  3. 3

    Exact spot: put your cursor in the text and use the Place media button, or type a description in double curly braces

  4. 4

    Publish — pinned media renders exactly where you marked it

Everything you add to Media for Display appears on your published piece. You control where in one of two ways.

Automatic (the default)

Do nothing and your photos and videos are placed for you: they follow the order of the media tray (drag tiles to reorder) and are spread between your paragraphs. Lots of media with a short body renders as a tap-to-expand grid.

Pin to an exact spot

Wrap a description of the item in double curly braces, right in your text where you want it:

  • {{the ribbon cutting}} — describe the photo
  • {{sunset over the pier}} — use its caption words
  • {{IMG_2041.jpg}} — or its file name

Close matches work — a few words that appear in the item's caption or file name are enough. Put the marker on its own line to place media between paragraphs, or inside a paragraph to place it right after that paragraph. The Place media button in the text toolbar does the typing for you: it lists your uploaded media and inserts the marker at your cursor.

A pinned tile shows a chip like "pinned · after ¶2" so you can see what matched. The older [media: description] bracket form also still works.

Make a photo small

Add a size option after a pipe when you want a compact, newspaper-style photo with the article text wrapped around it:

  • {{mayor headshot | small}} — small and aligned left (the default)
  • {{mayor headshot | small left}} — small and explicitly aligned left
  • {{mayor headshot | small right}} — small and aligned right

The older bracket form accepts the same option, for example [media: mayor headshot | small].

Good to know

  • If a marker can't be matched yet, the editor tells you; the media falls back to automatic placement until you add or caption the matching item. Captions and file names make matching much more reliable.
  • Pinning works on prose types — stories, events, local resources, initiatives, spotlights, public notices, obituaries, and alerts. Gallery-first types (classifieds, coupons, long-form video / podcast) always show media above the text, so they have no pin button.
  • Pinned positions render on the web and in the mobile apps; app versions from before pinning shipped fall back to automatic order.

Related: How to create a story, How to post an event, Using the create canvas