How to put a picture
in your forum messages
Other related pages that
I have created that may be helpful to you
http://www.marynpauln.com/sigtagimages.html
Placing sigtags in your
PCCrafter profile so that they
show up in your messages,
with information
about where to find free
tags, tutorials for learning
how to make them, sizing
them, and finding
a spot online to post
or upload and house them.
It
repeats some of the HOW-TO put links to pictures in forum postings
information
found below, but does include separate additional info.
http://www.teas2dine4.com/msnhousehow2.html
Moving into a MSN Group
and setting up a Album
to upload your pictures
or sigtags to, with links
to Groups owned/managed
by PCCrafter Hugster's
that have openings for
you to move and establish
a House.
It
repeats much of the HOW-TO put links to pictures
information
found below, but does include additional
help
for how to create an album, etc.
If you choose to obtain
your sigtag from the
PCCrafter.com Signature
Gallery, I created
this page for help with
that option.
http://marynpauln.com/4siggallerytags.html
I am
not employed or affiliated with PCCrafter.com and/or MSN. Information quoted
and or screens saves used from PCCrafter.com or its Message Forums
are used for informational purposes only.
First
things first -
in order to put a picture
in your message, the picture
must be located on the
internet. It cannot be on your home computer
and copied and/or pasted
into a message. The picture must be uploaded
in some manner to a location
on the internet that will allow you to link to it.
The same goes for your
signature tags. Many people who are pcCrafter forum members
join a MSN group and
create a photo album, where they can upload from
their own computers,
pictures and/or sigtag graphics, or other graphics they
want available for others
to view and or have access to.
The place that you may
host your pictures are usually referred to as
a HOUSE.
You must find the PROPERTIES
of the ACTUAL IMAGE itself, if you post a link
to the "web page" that
the image is on - between the image tags [img] and [/img]
your image will NOT SHOW
UP in the forum message.
I have an image (along
with other images) posted on this webpage of
one of my own websites
: (this is one of my Free ones that I have, this one is hosted by geocities.yahoo.com)
http://www.geocities.com/libmary/oldsalts.htm
Here below is the web
address of a specific image on that page:
If you click on this
link you will see just that image
http://www.geocities.com/libmary/bcc1josh00.jpg
I found the properties
of Just this image
Once your own image is
posted to a location of your choice
on the internet, go to
the web page it is on, make sure
you are viewing the image
at full size, NOT the thumbnail. Right mouse click on the
actual full size image
and find the PROPERTIES of that image - copy the LOCATION url
of that image. If it
is very long it will break within a forum posting and it will not show
up.
So you will need to take
that long url that you copied from the properties of the image,
over to a website such
as TinyURL http://www.tinyurl.com
Paste the long url web
address in the box next to the words: Make tinyurl. Then after
the new tiny url has
been made, there is a button to check "Open in New Window", that
will allow you to check
if that new tiny url, leads to your image. If it does, then close that
window and copy the new
tiny or shorter webaddress, and use that address to post between
your image tags
example - [img]http://tinyurl.com/45jy4[/img]
For those who own or
want to move into a House at MSN groups
I have created a page
with information on how to create a album/house
after joining a MSN Group,
it also lists several groups that are currently
open and accepting new
members. You also can create your very own group.
see: http://www.teas2dine4.com/msnhousehow2.html
Please Note: MSN Groups
are not your only option to upload pictures or
sigtags etc.
I have also listed
several options other than MSN for finding a place to house your HOUSE
pictures.
Steps
to follow for posting an image in your forum messages
When you write a message
there is a tool bar within your message, this is available to only
you when "you" are the
author of a message. These tools will help you with writing your messages.
The button that looks
like a mountain and a sun with a yellow color is the "image" tag button.
When you press it, it
automatically inserts the image tags within the body of your
message the tags are
[img] and [/img]. All tags within a message have an open tag and
a closed tag the
forward slash "/" must close all tags. All tags must be enclosed within
the brackets that look
like this [ ] . If you use any bracket such as { } or ( ) or <
> your
picture or web address
(also know as a URL) or do not close the tag [/img] - your picture
will not show up.
For the following examples, because
so many do have MSN houses
or want to join one, I will use my
own MSN album house in the screen shots.
Once you have obtained
a HOUSE and uploaded your photos and/or graphics
or sigtags you can go
to your album, and find the image that you would like to
display within a forum
message.
In most instances, you
will choose to click on the thumbnail image of the
picture you want to put
in your message to bring up the screen with it as full
size.
Once the full image is
on the screen, place your mouse cursor on the image
and right click to bring
up the menu, with "Properties as a selection"
choose Properties to
find the Location of the image, it will start with
html://
The Location is the URL
address of "that image" - it is the address that you
want. Unfortunately MSN
groups have Location/URL addresses that are
very long. They usually
are too long for most message boards, and will break,
if this happens, your
image will not show up, and your message will have a broken
image or a red x, show
up.
The easiest way to remedy
this, is to shorten the url, using a free online website
which will convert the
long URL to a short one.
The website I will use
for this example is TinyURL.com
http://tinyurl.com.
*But there are other
spots to shorten web location URLs such as:
http://www.6URL.com
or http://metamark.net/
It is very important that
you run your mouse over entire long
Location URL and get
all of it, then copy it to your clipboard.
An easy way to do that:
highlight entire url,
then press your control key
on your keyboard "Ctrl"
and then the letter "C" at the same time.
That will copy what you
highlighted to your clipboard.
When you visit the website
at which you will shorten it, you can
press the control key
again and at the same
time the letter "V",
this will "paste" the long url to the box or line
where you need to place
it, to have the website, shorten it.
The website used to shorten
this url location address is http://www.tinyurl.com
The next screen shows
the shortened url, copy that short or tiny url and that is what
you will use to paste
between your [img] [/img] tags within the message.
Also note: TinyURL has
a test link, [Open in new window], click on that to
make sure it shows your
image in the new window. If it does show the image
then close that window,
and copy the tiny url or shortened one.
Some MSN group members,
have found it handy to go back to their
album houses and edit
the information about various images, such as sigtags
by putting the short
url information within the Photo Title or Description.
That way it is always
available for copying and pasting within their
signature tag line in
their profile or for posting pictures within forum postings.
Now I can log-in to the
forum if I haven't already and type a message
and put the line in,
that I copied from my msn house or I can press the
button for the image
tags and paste or type the url: http://tinyurl.com/6t2ft
between them.
Remember there can be
NO SPACES in the following line
[img]theurladdresshere[/img]
and the address must start with http://
ALTERNATIVES
TO MSN Groups houses to host your photos or sigtags.
Here are ALTERNATIVE websites
that you can upload pictures to and post links to
in your forum messages
- I have copied these directly from my sigtags information page
There are online photo
and or image website hosting services , available to link images from.
**Note: your own Internet
Service Provider may provide as part of your service - free web space -
to host web pages and/or images
be sure to check with
them first to find out details of all their services
Here are some suggestions
for Free Image hosting sites
PhotoBucket.com
provides free image
hosting for Ebay, live journals, blogs, message boards, and online photo
albums. Photobucket is reliable, fast and very simple to use.
http://www.photobucket.com/
PhotoBucket tutorials
Ebay Auction Posting
| Uploading with FTP | Upload publisher with Windows XP
http://photobucket.com/tutorials/
Image Uploads
http://www.imageuploads.net/
Example FAQ
How does ImageUploads
work?
Signup for an account
or login if you already have an account and upload your images. It's as
simple and easy as it gets.
Is direct/hot linking
allowed on ImageUploads?
Yes direct or hot linking
is allowed, especially convenient for message board, personal website or
ebay auctions since our system outputs forum, html tag and url codes automatically.
Other sites to explore
for posting sigtags, photos, and graphics/images
Picture trail
http://www.picturetrail.com/
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Many arts and crafts
hobbyists use PictureTrail to host photos of their projects. This is a
great way to facilitate interest and discussion with online friends about
your arts and crafts interests.
http://www.picturetrail.com/webpages/photo_sharing_ideas.shtml
I opened a free account at picturetrail.com just to see what it was like -
they have some neat things you can do with photos
and post them on Webpages - this wouldn't work for posting in a messageboard thread
- but lets see if I can put this album
on this webpage here:
Click on each page to go to the next one
FreeImage Hosting
Our free image hosting
service is a perfect place to host your images for auction listings, message
forums, blog posts and much more.
http://www.afreeimagehost.com/
Free picture hosting
http://freepicturehosting.com/
ImageHosting
http://www.imagehosting.us/
Image Shack
http://www.imageshack.us/
Image Uploading
http://www.imageuploading.com/
Picgoo
http://hosting.picgoo.com/
Village Photos
http://www.villagephotos.com/
ZippyImages
http://www.zippyimages.com/
Want your very own website?
I own several websites,
this particular one
marynpauln.com - is a
site hosted for FREE at DotEasy.com -
I use it for storing
images and tutorials, etc. - but I don't even have a "home page" welcome
created. Because the website doesn't get alot of traffic - having it hosted
at doteasy is a good way for me to post pictures, sig tags etc. - and not
have any annoying banner ads.
Buying the domain name
was very easy, from doteasy and setting up was simple.
Here are some FREE sites
to create web space all your own
*some of these will carry
ads on your main pages but ads will not show when linking to your image
or sigtag,
Free web space sites
**
are NOT meant for Selling
or high traffic pages
but are just fine for
hosting your projects, directions/how-tos, family news, and photos etc.
http://geocities.yahoo.com
http://www.topcities.com/
http://www.bravenet.com/
http://www.freewebpage.org/
Free hosting for a website
– no banner ads
http://free.hostdepartment.com/
http://www.doteasy.com
Search for more sites
for hosting a website
Free web hosting search
http://www.freewebhostingsearch.com/
http://www.100-best-free-webspace.com/
http://www.absolutely-free-hosting.com/
If your free spot does
not have an easy upload feature, you can use a FREE FTP utilility such
as the one I use:
FTP Commander
http://www.internet-soft.com/ftpcomm.htm
Also see other examples
Coffee Cup free ftp
http://www.tucows.com/preview/195147.html
Core FTP
http://www.coreftp.com/
Things
to Remember
Now a couple of other
reminders:
You should be mindful
of image sizes.
Each time you post an
image in your message, either your sigtag or any other picture,
The messageboard internet
server at PCCrafter.com is actually connecting to
the internet server at
the place you have your picture or graphic located.
It is using bandwidth
from each other to access and bring the image into view.
If your image is large
in size - (measured in "kb" or bytes) it will take awhile to
load - especially for
people who are using internet dial-up services.
Each person opening and
reading messages on the forum message board are using their
own individual internet
connection and it is what is being used by the PCCrafter.com server
and your website location
of the picture - to connect and communicate with each other.
If their connection is
slow, and the traffic heavy between the 2 computer servers, they
may be waiting for images
to download, and sometimes they may even have to back
out of the message, rather
than wait for the download to complete.
Also important to note
- MSN group sites are often down or the traffic so busy at their
servers, that images
may not be able to be accessed and they will display as a red x or broken
image icon. And their are certain MSN groups that require that members
be logged in, and or that you be a member of MSN, in order for their own
internet connection to be able to pull up or view images or sigtags you
may have placed within a message post.
PCCrafter.com servers
also may at times be busy with high internet traffic, and may
have problems connecting
to other computer servers, and your images may appear as
a red x. The same goes
for connecting to the servers at TinyUrl.com.
In the screen save picture
above - when opening the picture I am using as
my example - MSN puts
in below the image the image size in "kb" of the image
this particular image
is 20kb. see above
Try to keep your pictures
under 50kb for efficient loading
PCCrafter.com Diva Lori
has posted a message with regard to the sizing and other important
information about the
use of signature tags in forum postings.
in the Cafe Diva community.
Read it here:
http://pccrafter.com/community/cafediva.aspx
So for everyones benefit,
it is wise to first size or resize any images
or graphics you upload
to the internet, so that they load quickly.
Most graphic / photo editing
software, have image options for sizing images for
putting in email messages,
or on webpages, etc. Use those features of the programs
you own first to size
your images appropriately.
Also see these websites
for further help or information for resizing images.
** these are copied from
my main SigTag help page
http://www.marynpauln.com/sigtagimages.html
Help with
Images - what is a Gif, what is a Jpg, how to resize, etc.
Animated images are saved
as .gif files, .gif images are the only ones that can be saved as transparent.
.jpg images keep
the best quality
Images can also be saved
in .png .bmp and other image formats. For most internet images, choose
either .gif or .jpg
Info on Image Formats
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/image_formats.html
Articles/Info online of
interest
Scaling Graphics for
the Web
http://www.kumc.edu/webdev/graphics2/scaling.html
Sizing Graphics for the
WEB
http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/DTG-Solutions/60-Sizes.html
Web Graphics for Beginners
http://www.iboost.com/build/graphics/tutorials/wgforbeg/743.htm
THUMBNAIL IMAGES
Resizing, reducing and
reformatting graphics
excerpt quoted from website
article
A "Thumbnail" is a small
graphic image that is usually used as a link to either a larger version
of that image or to another web site. The image used for the Thumbnail
needs to be reduced and resized to a smaller graphic for a quicker download
of your web page. The viewer then has the option to click on the Thumbnail
if they want to see the larger picture, which will take longer to download,
or if they want to visit another site that it is linked to.
A common mistake among
web page designers (new and experienced) is not "reducing the bytes" and
actually "resizing" the original image into a Thumbnail picture. A lot
of web designers will just change the WIDTH and HEIGHT attribute of the
picture in their < IMG SRC > tags, often to a size that is not the exact
ratio of the original.
Read entire article -
talks about resizing "Animated" graphics as well
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Campus/4642/thumbnail_bw.html
ImageMagik
Excerpt quoted from website
- (download program for free)
Introduction to ImageMagick
ImageMagickTM, version
6.1.9-4, is a free software suite for the creation, modification and display
of bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a large variety
of formats. Images can be cropped, colors can be changed, various effects
can be applied, images can be rotated and combined, and text, lines, polygons,
ellipses and Bézier curves can be added to images and stretched
and rotated.
ImageMagick is free software:
it is delivered with full source code and can be freely used, copied, modified
and distributed. Its license is compatible with the GPL. It runs on all
major operating systems.
http://www.imagemagick.org/
Using ImageMagik v.6 for
resizing and more
http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/graphics/imagick6/
Put your images
on a "reduction program"
Some sites limit the size
of image uploads
Here are some free
sites for help with “Reduction” of your image sizes
GifBot
GIFBot is a free tool
that compresses your GIF, JPEG, and animated GIF images. Decrease image
file size without sacrificing image quality!
http://www.netmechanic.com/accelerate.htm
http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm
Image reduction tool
http://www.highpowergraphics.com/cruncher.html
DesignerWiz.com
.JPEG Image Byte Reduction
Cruncher - Optimizer Generator
Make your .JPEG images
load much faster by reducing the image size bytes.
Free .GIF Graphic Image
Byte Reduction Cruncher Generator :
http://tinyurl.com/3n3sh
Find:Compression and Optimization
Software
Software for compressing
and optimizing GIFs, JPEGs, animations,
and other images for
the Web.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/optimizationsoftware/
Listing of Free software
to download (*some are free to try only)
Graphics > Graphic Manipulation
> Image Resizing
http://www.freewarehome.com/Graphics/Graphic_Manipulation/Image_Resizing_t.html
These are links to graphics
information and resources available on the Web and that can assist you
in graphically enhancing a web page or web site.
http://www.callihan.com/weblinks/graphics.htm
Visit this website for
information on
Animations, Graphics,
Javascripts, resources, Free Software, Information, and more
http://www.bellsnwhistles.com/info.html
