How to post a photo + create a hyperlink URL or an avatar

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Stuart
Posts: 2568
Joined: 11 Mar 2008, 10:43
Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 12 Feb 2009, 14:35

Are you wanting to share some of your photos in your posts? Looking to include a long URL that will make your post look untidy and break the flow of your elegant prose? Want to show a groovy image of yourself or some other representative image in all your posts using an avatar? Here's a quick guide on how to do so.

BTW, after you first register on the site (or if you haven't already done it) DHBC strongly urges you to create an entry for yourself in the Introduce Yourself topic ( http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=372 ) and please, include a photo of yourself in this profile. It makes it easier for every body to know just who you are, especially if your username bears no resemblance to your real name or if for instance, your name is Michael.

IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
Shots off the Action Snaps or any other professional photographers site are most probably copyright. DHBC will uphold proper intellectual property rights on this forum.

We must (legally) make a distinction between linking to a photo you don't own that's already on the web (i.e. in the public domain) and downloading a copyright photo and then uploading the same photo to another photo site (like photobucket) and linking to it. Can all posters please be aware of this difference and act accordingly. Please Do NOT download copyrighted photo's and then link to them on this site. Such posts WILL BE DELETED.

Furthermore, If you link to a photo from any copyrighted photo site, please place a link to the photographers site in your post - its common courtesy - they're trying to make a living!

If you've bought photos, please read the copyright notice that came with your photos and act accordingly.

Posting a photo:
It is not possible to attach or insert a photo to a forum post directly. What you can do however is link to a photo that is posted anywhere else on the web. All you need is the full location URL of the photo and the correct "tags" to tell the forum software to display a photo. Remember though that there may be copyright implications if you link to somebody else's photos.
Note: If you already use a different photo website to Photobucket see the instructions "How to post any photo from the web".

How to post your own photo's using Photobucket:
1. Get yourself an account at Photobucket - http://photobucket.com/ This is by far the easiest photo site for use with forums on the web and it's free with up to at least 1GB of storage.
2. Upload the photos you want to Photobucket (PB);
3. Hover over the thumbnail of your photo at PB and click in the IMG Code entry box in the list that appears (the bottom one) and then copy the string that appears there e.g. [IMG]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo181/stuarthickson/DSC_0001-1.jpg[/IMG] The tags to show the start and end of an image post on our forum are [img] to start and then [/img] to finish (no spaces in between). PB just does this all for you. Cool huh.
4. Paste this whole string into your post - click on preview and you should see your photo.
5. Submit

How to post any photo from the web - (including from Flickr):
So you use a different photo site than PB or you've seen a really great and relevant (or not!) photo and you want to display it in the post (rather than post a link to it), follow these steps to display it in your post.
1. Right click on the photo you want to display;
2. Select "properties" from the displayed menu dialogue box;
3. From the "Image Properties" list in the displayed dialogue box copy the entire Location URL for the photo e.g. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/2675135219_dd815b1605.jpg (Flickr note: be sure to remove the text after the .jpg from the URL string e.g ?v=0 );
4. In your post type [img] then paste the url (no spaces) then type [/img] so it would look like this: [img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/2675135219_dd815b1605.jpg[/img]
5. Do a preview - you should see the photo displayed in your post;
6. Submit

How to clean up your URL posts by using hyperlinks:
So you want to post a URL link but it's 512 characters long and takes up two lines, really messing up your post, making it look untidy and breaking the flow of your elegant prose. No problem. Here's how to make the URL link appear as a hyperlink which is really any text you want that when clicked opens the relevant URL.
1. Copy your URL from the relevant website;
2. Type the opening URL tag plus an equals sign with NO end bracket i.e. [url= and then paste in your URL followed by a close brackets ] sign e.g.
[url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2009/probikes/?id=ivan_basso_cannondale09]
3. Following the close bracket type the meaningful text you want to appear as the "hyperlink" to the real URL e.g. Cannondale SuperSix Hi-Mod prototype . Then type the close URL tag of [/url] Important: Spaces are allowed in the hyperlink text but no where else.
So the entire string should look something like this:
[url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2009/probikes/?id=ivan_basso_cannondale09]Cannondale SuperSix Hi-Mod prototype[/url]
In your post the URL will appear just as the hyperlink text coloured red and when a reader clicks it the web page will open in a separate browser window.
So in this case you may see:
Check out this excellent article on the Cannondale SuperSix Hi-Mod prototype on Cycling News - clicking on the hyperlink text would open the website referred to by the URL without the ugly URL syntax.
Note: The newer version of the software we use automatically truncates long URLs, but they still work OK.

Creating an Avatar:
An Avatar is the small image that is shown with your username in every post you make on the forum enabling you to personalise your posts and making them instantly recognisable as yours. You can choose a "normal" photo or be creative - just ask Huw for guidance there. The hard part is that its width can be no greater than 80 pixels, the height no greater than 80 pixels, and the file size no more than 6 KB - that's pretty small. Here is one way to easily create a correctly sized and small enough image out of an original photo or image you've created.
1. Open http://www.shrinkpictures.com/create-avatar/ in your browser;
2. Click the "Choose Photo" button and locate your image on your hard drive;
3. Set the avatar size to 80 pixels;
4. Click resize;
5. Select which of the avatars is best centred for you and click on download;
6. Click on the Profile link on the forum and upload the avatar in the Avatar Control Panel section of your profile;
7. Submit

Geek Note: BB (forum) Code is disabled in this post.
URL = Universal Resource Locator - I just knew you'd always wanted to know that.

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