Help:Files

This is an information page. It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcuts WP:FILE WP:NS6

This page in a nutshell: To use an image or other media file on Wikipedia, you need to upload it, and then edit a Wikipedia page to use the file.

The File namespace is a namespace consisting of administration pages in which all of Wikipedia's media content resides. On Wikipedia, all media filenames begin with the prefix File:, including data files for images, video clips, or audio clips, including document length clips; or MIDI files (a small file of computer music instructions).

Search for files, or upload your own file. (See Uploading files below.) A search lists every file page containing all the search terms found on the file page. From the search box, enter File:descriptive terms.  For example, include the terms image, video, or midi in the query. Then, discovering the page name, you can edit the wikitext of any page and insert that media. This is an easy way to significantly improve articles. (See Using files below.) For example, the page title "File:CI 2011 swim 04 jeh.theora.ogv" will appear in the search results for File: swim video.

There are three semantic differences from the normal wikilink syntax when working with a file page:

• [[File:pagename]] will transclude the file, inserting the image, video, audio, or MIDI file into the rendered page in a file link. A file link is a transclusion from the File namespace, complete with transclusion parameters.
• [[:File:pagename]], with the initial colon, will link the image, video, or audio file page;
• [[Media:pagename]] will render a link which can activate the image or audio or video of a data file directly, on its own page (separate from the rendered page or the file page).

For backward compatibility with older pages the alias Image: (now deprecated) is still available instead of File: in wikilinks or in the search box, but "image" will now refer to more types of data files than just images.