How to Crop an Image Using WordPress Default Functionality

Say you’ve uploaded an image to WordPress, something like this:

a young naturalist glassing birds in Maryland

But maybe the place it’s showing up in your theme wants a small, square crop of the image. With this one, it would look like this:

a young naturalist glassing birds in Maryland

Now, maybe I don’t like that his shoulder is getting cut off. Let’s edit it.

1. Go into the Media section, by clicking the appropriate link in the left side navigation (where you see Dashboard, Posts, Media, etc.)

2. Find and click on the image you want to edit. Note that you can search or sort by date if the image isn’t immediately visible.

3. Click on the image, an overlay will appear like this:

screenshot of the functionality being discussed

4. Click the Edit button

5. Drag a square over the image like you want the final cropped image to appear.

screenshot of the functionality being discussed

6. Click the Crop button, it’s the one furthest to the left in the image above.

screenshot of the functionality being discussed

7. Click Save and you’re all set!

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