How to set a featured image and set its focal point on Medium
Medium’s editor is fantastic. It’s simple and minimal and designed so that users without any HTML experience can be comfortable using it in a matter of seconds.
Even though it’s simple and minimal, Medium also includes features for the power users that are accessed through keyboard shortcuts. The problem lies in the fact they are hard to find and not well documented.
Just this weekend I found the ability to manually set a featured image and then later discovered you can also set the focal point on an image. This gives you a lot of power in how your story is displayed on the various lists throughout the site and allows you to ensure stories on your publication page look fantastic.
To showcase these two features in action I created the following quick two-minute video demoing setting a featured image with focal point in real time:
Here is how it works. First, upload a new image into your story and select it. (It should have a green bar around it)
Next hit the keyboard combo, Command + Option + 8 on a mac, or Ctrl + Alt + 8 on Windows. This will put a red border around the image designated it is as featured.
Finally, to set the focal point hold down Option and click the area you want focused with your mouse. A green circle will appear highlighting the location.
That’s it! Now when you publish your featured image will be ready and the focal point set. Here are the shortcuts again as a reminder:
Mac
- Command + Option + 8 = set the image as featured.
- Option + Mouse Click = set the focal point.
Windows
- Ctrl + Alt + 8 = set the image as featured.
- Alt + Mouse Click = set the focal point
