If you use the Blink Context blog WordPress theme, the main blog section will display a YouTube video as the post thumbnail instead of its featured image. This is demonstrated in the demo with the post titled “Ship tour VIKING JUPITER – Video format,” which appears in the blog section. In other sections, the featured image is shown instead of the YouTube video.
This behavior is controlled by setting the post format to Video. Before we walk through the setup process, let’s first understand what post formats are and how many types are available.
WordPress Post Formats Guide
Post Formats is a theme feature (not a custom taxonomy in the traditional sense, though it’s implemented as one under the hood) that lets you give individual posts thumbnail a different presentation style — think post title in demo Ship tour VIKING JUPITER – Video format where a “video” post looks different from a standard “standard” post.
The Standard Formats
WordPress core defines these 10 formats:
- standard – default, no special formatting
- aside – short, note-like content, typically no title
- gallery – a set of images
- link – a link to another site
- image – a single image
- quote – a quotation
- status – short status update (like a tweet)
- video – video content
- audio – audio content/files
- chat – a chat transcript
Out of above, Blink context blog support standard and video post format. It’s premium version support standard, video, audio, quote and gallery.
Setting up the post format
Via Classic Editor
- Edit the post.
- In the right-hand column, find the Format meta box (usually below Publish, above Categories).
- Select the radio button for the desired format.
- Click Update.
After you select the Video post format and update the post, the system will automatically detect the first video link from the post content.
- If you have inserted a YouTube video, the post thumbnail will display a screenshot of that video, which will auto-play for just a few seconds.
- Alternatively, you can also directly upload an MP4 video file instead of using a YouTube link.
If you choose the Quote post format, the system will automatically extract the first quote from the post content and display it as a thumbnail overlay on top of the featured image.
If you choose the Audio post format, the system will automatically extract the first audio file from the post content and display it as a thumbnail overlay on top of the featured image.
If you choose the Gallery post format, the system will automatically extract all images from the post content and display them as a carousel thumbnail, along with the featured image. However, the most important thing to note here is that it only extracts images that are uploaded directly into the post — it does not include images that are selected from the existing media library.
Since these post format designs only affect the thumbnail style in the main blog section, other sections—such as the card slider—will still display the featured image as the thumbnail. Therefore, it is mandatory to add a featured image to your post regardless of the post format you choose.