Images and files

Every space has one library for its pictures, PDFs, videos and other files. In Manablox these are called assets. You upload a file once, and any number of documents can use it. When a website shows an image, Manablox hands it out in ready-made sizes, so a small thumbnail never has to download a huge photo.

Open Assets in the sidebar to get there. Everyone in a space can look at the library. Uploading needs a role that may upload files (authors, editors, admins and owners can), and deleting needs a role that may delete them (editors, admins and owners). See Users and roles if a button you expect is missing.

The library at a glance

The page shows your files as tiles. Above them is a toolbar:

Control	What it does
All, Images, Other files	Shows everything, only pictures, or only the rest (PDFs, videos, fonts, …).
Search by name or tag…	Finds assets by their name, their file name or a tag they carry.
Tags	Narrows the library to the tags you tick. See Tags.
Tiles and table buttons (on the right)	Switch between the tile grid and a table with one row per file.

Click a tile to select it. The details panel opens on the right with a preview, the file type, its size and, for a picture, its size in pixels.

You can also select several files at once:

• Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click to add or remove one file.
• Hold Shift and click to select a whole run of files.
• Drag a box over empty space in the grid to select everything it touches.

With more than one file selected, the panel shows how many you picked, a Select all button and a button to delete them together.

Uploading files

1. Click Upload files at the top right (or press U).
2. Pick one or more files in the window that opens.

You can also drag files from your computer straight onto the grid. The grid lights up and says “Drop to upload”.

While it works, the button counts along, for example “Uploading 2 of 5…”. When it is done, the new file is selected and its details panel is open. The name of the asset is the file name without its ending: team-photo.jpg becomes “team-photo”.

Uploading the very same file a second time does not create a copy. Manablox notices it already has these exact bytes in this space and gives you the existing asset.

When an upload is refused

A red line under the toolbar starts with “Not uploaded” and says why. The two usual reasons are:

• The file is too large for this space.
• The space does not accept this kind of file.

Manablox looks at what a file really contains, not only at its name, so renaming virus.exe to photo.jpg does not get it in.

An admin decides what a space accepts under Settings > Spaces, in the space’s Uploads card: the Allowed file types and the Largest file (MB). Leaving them empty follows the limits of the whole installation. A space can only be stricter than the installation, never looser. The installation-wide limits are set by a developer; see Uploads and images.

Name and alt text

With an asset selected, the details panel has two fields you should fill in:

• Name: how the asset is called in the library and in the search.
• Alt text: a short description of what the picture shows, for example “Two bakers laughing in front of the oven”.
• Tags: labels you can find the file by later. Type one and pick it from the list, or create it by typing a new name. See Tags.

Click Save changes afterwards.

Alt text matters. Screen readers read it out to people who cannot see the picture, search engines use it, and a browser shows it when the image fails to load. Describe what is in the picture, not the file (“image123”) and not the obvious (“a photo of”).

Tip

Write the alt text once, right after uploading. Every document that uses the picture then gets it for free.

Editing an image

Select a picture and click Edit image in the details panel. A large editor opens with three modes at the top: Crop, Focal point and Colour.

Nothing you do here changes the file you uploaded. Manablox keeps the original and remembers your edits, so you can always go back.

Turning and mirroring

On the right, under Orientation, four buttons turn the picture a quarter left or right and mirror it left to right or top to bottom. They work in every mode. The crop and the focal point turn and mirror with the picture.

Crop

Use crop to cut away what should never be shown, for example a messy edge or a stranger at the side.

1. Choose Crop at the top.
2. Drag the frame to move it, or drag its small square handles to resize it.
3. To keep a fixed shape, pick one of the ratio buttons: Free, Original, 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9.

Whole image removes the crop again.

Focal point

The focal point is the most important spot of the picture, for example a face. When a website needs the picture in a different shape (a square thumbnail from a wide photo, say), it cuts around this point instead of simply keeping the middle.

1. Choose Focal point at the top.
2. Click on the subject of the picture. A small circle marks the spot.

Centre removes the focal point, so the middle is used again.

Colour

Choose Colour to change Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue with sliders, and to pick an Effect: None, Grey, Sepia or Invert. Leave the colour alone resets everything in this mode.

Check and save

Under What variants keep you see small previews of the picture as a square, as a wide 16:9 and as a tall 3:4 image. They show roughly what a website gets when it asks for those shapes.

Click Save edits. The details panel now lists the crop, the focal point and any turning or effect. Websites get the edited version from then on.

Ready-made sizes

A website rarely shows the original photo. It asks Manablox for a named size, called a preset, and gets a smaller, web friendly copy (a “variant”). A new project comes with three presets:

Preset	Size
thumb	Fits in 320 x 320 pixels, for small previews and lists
card	640 pixels wide, for cards and teasers
hero	1920 pixels wide, for large banner images

You do not create these copies yourself; they are made automatically the first time a website asks for them. Your crop and colour edits are part of every variant. Which presets exist is set by a developer; see Uploads and images.

Availability

Normally a file is visible on the website as soon as a published document uses it. The Availability section in the details panel lets you limit that to a time window, for example for a price list that is only valid this month.

1. Click Availability to open it. It says “always” when no window is set.
2. Fill in Publish at, Unpublish at, or both.
3. Click Save schedule.

Outside the window, the public website does not serve the file, even if a published document still points at it. Inside the admin you always see it.

Sharing an asset with another space

If you are a member of several spaces, the details panel has a Spaces section with one chip per space. Tick another space and click Save spaces: the same file now appears in that library too. It is one asset, so its name, alt text and edits are the same everywhere.

The panel shows a “shared” badge for an asset that is in more than one space. You cannot untick the last space; an asset always belongs somewhere.

Using images and files in content

Pictures and files get into a document through an asset field of its content type (see Building content types).

1. Open the document and find the asset field.
2. Click Choose asset. The “Choose an asset” window shows your library, limited to the kinds of file the field accepts.
3. Click the file you want. It appears in the field.
4. Save the document.

In the same window you can search, click Upload new or drop a file on the window. A file uploaded there is picked for the field as soon as it lands.

To use a different picture, click Replace in the field and choose another asset. The cross on a picked asset removes it from the field (the file stays in the library).

Note

There is no button to swap the file behind an existing asset. To use a new version of a picture, upload it as a new asset and choose it in your documents with Replace.

If your space has an AI provider set up, Generate an image and Generate a video buttons appear next to Upload files and in asset fields. See AI.

Copying a link

Copy URL in the details panel copies the address of the original file, and Open shows it in a new browser tab. This is handy to send a file to a colleague. For a website, let the developer use the ready-made sizes instead.

Deleting

1. Select the asset.
2. Click Delete asset at the bottom of the details panel.
3. Confirm with Delete asset.

This removes the file and all its sizes for good. Documents that used it keep an empty reference, so check them afterwards: a web page may now show a gap where the picture was.

For an asset that is shared with other spaces, the button says Remove from this space instead. It only takes the asset out of this library; the other spaces keep it.

To delete several files at once, select them and click the delete button in the panel on the right.