Tutorial on posting pics

And now, how to post a picture. This tutorial covers three different ways of posting an image:

Index

1. Posting images held on your own computer
2. Posting images held on Photobucket
3. Posting images held on Flickr

The first thing to know is that the image you get in your post is not directly linked to IBC from your computer. The system uses a hosting service called Servimg and an account with this service is created the first time you post an image. The service is free.

First, click on the box the Arrow (pointer) is pointing at in pic # 1. (You should get a legend saying Host an Image when you hover over the icon before you click it).



You will see a box (pic #2).



Now, click on Browse and source your picture on your computer.
Double click it, then click on Host it.

NOTE: Users of google Chrome will get a slightly different version of this box, which looks like this:



The Choose and the Browse button fulfil the same function.


Either way you will get Pic 3:




Next, click on the Copy box next to the middle URL (labeled "Image:), then put your pointer back on the message page at the spot where you want the picture to appear and "Paste" it in. THEN, click on Upload.

(Note: Sometimes, clicking on the "Copy" button doesn't highlight the address of the picture you want to post. In that case, just click on the box that contains the address to highlight it, and then Copy that. Then Paste it in and click Upload.)


That should do it. You can go back to your message and do what you wish.

A point or two: You CAN paste in any size images, but I still find it is best for viewing to ensure that my images are relatively small. I try to maintain the 600 pixel width from the old board to ensure that the picture fit the screen and don't require scrolling.

You can put as many pics as you want into a single message, though that gets a bit clumsy to read.

Now, let's see if I've done all this right.

If you already have a load of your bonsai images on Photobucket and don't want to move them, then you can link to them using the following method:

In Photobucket, load the image you want to use then click on the image (IMG) Code. This should automatically copy it.

Now just click in the text pane of your post at the spot you want your image to appear, and paste the image code. You will see it appear like this:



Then just click SEND and that should be it - your image will appear in the published post.


You can also use the Link button and paste the IMG code into the drop down box then press OK, but it really only does the same thing.




Thanks to Will Baddelely for working this out for me

Similar to Photobucket. Open the image you want to use from your Flickr account. At the top left is a button marked SHARE.
Click on this then select the Grab the HTML/BBCode option from the drop down box.
Select the BBCode radio button and a piece of code appears in the window. Highlight and Copy this.
Then simply click your cursor into the text box of your post where you want the image to go and Paste in the code. It should look like this:



Again, simply click SEND and bob's your uncle.






Thanks to Will Baddelely for working this out for me

A plea to the users of Flickr, Photobucket or other external photohosting sites:

1. Remember, if you subsequently remove an image from your photohosting site, it will also be deleted from IBC. For this reason, we prefer members to use the internal system.

2. Sometimes people post their images as links to their external photohosting site (e.g. http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww353/fionnghal/Buxusonslab.jpg) This works of course, but it means the readers then have to follow that link away from the post. Some members don't have any problem with this but others find it a bit distracting - especially when there is some text related to the picture back on the post and you are having to toggle between the two.

As we saw in the previous two posts, it's so easy to link your images from Flickr etc directly into the post text pane, so this would be our preferred method if you are posting images using an external photohosting site.

We'll try to establish how you do this as and when we come across other services.

imgur:
Under your image click Get Embed Codes then over on the pane that appears on the right, click the Copy icon under BBCode (message boards and forums). Simply then paste that into the text pane on your post where you want the image to appear.

A word of caution; if your original on imgur is a big file, click on Large Thumbnail (it's one of the size options under the embed codes) to get the image a reasonable size above, otherwise the original might take up the whole page and overwhelm the readers.