I have developed this custom WP theme: <http://www.asper-eritrea.com/>

As you can see into the post excertpt (in the home page) it is showed the first immage into my posts.

To do it I use this code:

```
<div class="entry-content">    
    <?php
        if (!has_post_thumbnail() && catch_that_image()) {
            if ( get_the_post_thumbnail($post_id) != '' ) { // Se l'articolo non ha un'immagine predefinita:

                echo '<span class="thumb"><a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '" class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
                the_post_thumbnail();
                echo '</a><span>';
            } else {

                echo '<a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '" class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
                echo '<img src="';
                echo catch_that_image();
                echo '" alt="" />';
                echo '</a>';

            }
        }
    ?>

    <?php 
        if(has_post_thumbnail()) {
            echo '<span class="thumbnail"><a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '">';the_post_thumbnail(array(100,100)); echo '</a></span>';
        }
    ?>

    <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
    <?php wp_link_pages('before=<div class="page-link">' . __( 'Pages:', 'your-theme' ) . '&after=</div>') ?>
</div>      <!-- .entry-content -->

```

To check if the \*featured immage\*\* existe I use the **has\_post\_thumbnail()** function that **check if a post has an immage attached**, then to retrieve this immage I use: **the\_post\_thumbnail()** function.

To retreive the first immage I use the custom function named **catch\_that\_image()** declared into my \*functions.php\*\* file, this one:

```
function catch_that_image() {
    global $post, $posts;
    $first_img = '';
    ob_start();
    ob_end_clean();
    $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
    $first_img = $matches[1][0];

    /*if(empty($first_img)) {
        $first_img = "/path/to/default.png";
    }*/
    return $first_img;
}

```

I want to have the following behavior: if in a post there is an immage but the **featured immage** is not setted then use the first immage in the post. If in the post there are more than on immage but the **featured immage** is setted then show the **featured immage** into the post excerpt.

In the **functions.php** file I also added the thumbnails support:

```
function aspertheme_setup() {
    add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
}

```

Now my problem is that the first immage of a post is correctly shown but I can't set a **featured immage** because when I create a new post I have not the box for thumbnail setting.

Why? What am I missing? How can I solve this issue?

Tnx

Andrea

EDIT 1: Into the **"Screen Options"** tab at the top right of the page I only have this:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3K8Xy.png)