Avatars If you want to add an avatar, please size the art correctly before adding it to your profile. Avatars are limited to 120x120 pixels. Many of the avatars currently displayed are (were) as large as 1020 pixels wide! When a too-big avatar is added it is deceptive because the software forces the large image into a 120x120 space and it looks fine. It isn't.
A very convenient website for free resizing your image is WebResizer.com. It's easy to use, resizes photos and lets you download them back to your computer. Then you can use the your Profile page to upload the custom avatar.
Adding images of gardens or crafts...
You have two options for including images with your messages: a single attachment, or a group of up to ten images.
To directly add one attachment, file size less than 100k, to your message, look under the text entry area and see a section where it says "You may attach a file to this message." and shows a space for the location of the message and a button that says "browse":
Browsing in this case is finding the file on your computer that will be uploaded directly to the Backpacker server. This will show up under your posted message as an attachment, and that is a possible flaw: you can't embed a photo into a block of text and then continue the story.
Adding More than One Photo? This will require your first adding the pictures to another server, then linking as many as 10 images into your message.
PLEASE set the file sizes to 100k or so, not the typical 300k and larger. That's just wrong.
Upload to Another Server? Explain! There are so many questions about photo hosting sites, and several get recommended, but I now suggest Photobucket.
Note: I tried each of the sites and very much prefer Photobucket.
I used to prefer Imageshack but it has changed and is now low on my list. Now I prefer Photobucket because it allows easy resizing of an uploaded image. And now Imageshack requires you to download a special "uploader" for either a PC or a Mac. I didn't care for it.
[Note: I just tried WebShots again and found it to be overly complicated when it comes time to posting here. See below how it resized my correctly-sized upload? It offered 100 or 200 pixel sizes, neither of which is correct. Nope! Photobucket is a better choice in my opinion.]
Adding images to your messages... Prepare the art as usual, but please stick to images no wider than 600 pixels at 72 pixels per inch!* That is plenty big enough, and larger images distort the page layout for everyone!
Put your image(s) on one of the sites mentioned above, then grab the tag for direct link (TinyPic will offer you an IMG tag version; take it, but DO NOT REAPPLY the IMG tag mentioned next!) Paste that plain take into your message and if it is NOT from TinyPic, then hit the button that says "IMAGE". Bingo, it puts the right tags around your link data and the photo is called from afar to appear in your message (Don't use the [URL=HTTP://"]HTTP://"[/URL] tag unless you want to make the viewer jump to that offsite image!):
Preparing Artwork You don't need super abilities to turn a photo or other image into something ready to post. While everyone covets Photoshop, few need to spend all that cash for a few graphic tasks, Good news, I have found, and used, two excellent options that cost zero:
If you have a PC, download Picasa for a free and very usable program that will let you crop and resize, and do some color correcting, etc. if you want to do that.
If you use a Mac, look at a program called Seashore, also free, is absurdly easy to use to create an avatar or other image for uploading. It's easier than iPhoto, and Picasa too, and I thought they were easy!
*NOTE: Now that there is an ad using a chunk of space that was once the area for messages, the messages are narrower and a photo will be reduced to 600 pixels max width.
The toolbar at the top has icons that are miserably hard to really see except for the first two and the last three. The second to last is supposed to look like a little picture (!) and is used when you bring a URL (photo location) from another place; like this:
That is from my own site and the URL is wrapped in IMG tags like this:
Click the icon, then paste the URL into the space provided, and hit the tiny OK button. You can add up to ten images--one at a time--this way.
Me? I prefer to simply add IMG and /IMG tags (in square brackets like [ and ]) and skip the "ease" of the automated icon.
To attach a picture, use the link UNDER the text entry area as shown in the screen shot that started this thread. You can attach ONE image only and it will be at the bottom of your message.
I don't ever see the window you indicate in the first post of this message either. Is it hidden, or do you mean this is what our posting window should look like? Mine doesn't, it looks like this:
So what does someone like me do to find the window that allows me to attach an image?
~ Mary ~ ddogtalk at hotmail dot com There's nothing to like or dislike in another that isn't a reflection of yourself.
Posts: 3051 | Location: Zone 4 - MN | Registered: August 18, 2006
So what does someone like me do to find the window that allows me to attach an image?
Man, this site is giving me a headache! For whatever reason, NOBODY has had "permission" to add images! Only the moderator had that permission, but I have just set that to all users.
I don't know why this place has been so long ignored and left with so many things NOT set to work! I can only fix what I finally learn is broken.
I am trying to resize with the program you suggested. Does it normally take a long long time to download the edited image or am I doing something wrong?
Does it normally take a long long time to download the edited image or am I doing something wrong?
Actually, WebResizer is quite fast. Results should be available for immediate download. In fact I just resized the attached photo and now I wonder if it downloaded so fast you missed seeing it happen? Seriously. And also, it saves the file into a "downloads" folder (or some other special location) so check for that.
It took a long time for the picture to load into WebResizer.
Just for clarity, a large upload will still take time, particularly if you don't have high-speed cable. Even DSL will be a bit of a drag. This is why it's nice to post small files for everyone else to view.
I have tried putting it on photobucket, and then when I go to the direct link, one has to click on that in my post to go see the picture. It works, but other people get really nice pictures to show up in here.
So I went to the resize it website, and changed it down to 120 x120, and it did post, but it was tiny.
Sorry I am so slow at this, really I am reasonably intelligent, this is driving me nuts! hope you can help.
mk
Posts: 3081 | Location: SW South Dakota | Registered: June 10, 2008
But if you take that same code and then use the IMAGE icon when you create your message, add that direct code into the IMG tags,...
...you get this:
quote:
So I went to the resize it website, and changed it down to 120 x120, and it did post, but it was tiny.
Well, 120x120 is tiny! You can go up to 600 or so and use that image for a single ATTACHMENT. When links from Photobucket are used you can add several photos to the same message.
