Posted 09/02/2010 9:00 pm
There are two ways you can get pictures hosted right here on CCF. And we do prefer that people host here if they can, rather than offsite like Photobucket. Offsite pictures have a nasty habit of expiring, making a thread useless as a historical reference.
If you have lots of pics, you can get a CCF Gallery. Unfortunately, it's only available to members with more than 50 posts, and you're not quite there yet. See here for the current Galleries.
Alternatively, you can use the forum's "Add image" option in a reply to a thread. This Tutorial on adding pictures tells you everything you need to know, but there are a few things the tutorial isn't clear about.
- The file has to be the correct format, with a ".jpg" filename extension. If your pics aren't JPEGs and you don't know how to convert them, Google "JPEG Converter" or check the "File Save As" options in your graphics editor program.
- The file has to have a "legal" name. The forum software has a glitch here which we've never been able to fix; it can't handle "special characters" in a filename, and a space or underscore qualifies as a "special character". Only letters and numbers are allowed. So, "My Picture #1" is not a valid filename; "My_Picture_1" isn't either, and nor is "MyPicture#1". "MyPicture1", however, is a valid filename. It's a pain, I know, but it's worth the effort of renaming a file.
- The file has to be the right size, less than 100kb. Modern cameras take pictures which are, frankly, way too big. You will most likely need to crop and shrink a raw picture to make it small enough. If using a scanner, 300 dpi is plenty. Check the "Resize" options in your graphics editor program or, if the program doesn't seem to have any Resize options, download Irfanview, a simple graphics editor, from the forum - the link is in the tutorial I linked to above.
- The little green camera icon the tutorial mentions only appears when you either start a new Topic or click on the "Reply To Topic" link below your username at the top of the screen. You won't see it if you reply to threads using the "Quick Reply" box at the bottom of the screen.
Note that these restrictions about file size or filename don't apply to CCF Gallery files, or files stored off-site.
If you have lots of pics, you can get a CCF Gallery. Unfortunately, it's only available to members with more than 50 posts, and you're not quite there yet. See here for the current Galleries.
Alternatively, you can use the forum's "Add image" option in a reply to a thread. This Tutorial on adding pictures tells you everything you need to know, but there are a few things the tutorial isn't clear about.
- The file has to be the correct format, with a ".jpg" filename extension. If your pics aren't JPEGs and you don't know how to convert them, Google "JPEG Converter" or check the "File Save As" options in your graphics editor program.
- The file has to have a "legal" name. The forum software has a glitch here which we've never been able to fix; it can't handle "special characters" in a filename, and a space or underscore qualifies as a "special character". Only letters and numbers are allowed. So, "My Picture #1" is not a valid filename; "My_Picture_1" isn't either, and nor is "MyPicture#1". "MyPicture1", however, is a valid filename. It's a pain, I know, but it's worth the effort of renaming a file.
- The file has to be the right size, less than 100kb. Modern cameras take pictures which are, frankly, way too big. You will most likely need to crop and shrink a raw picture to make it small enough. If using a scanner, 300 dpi is plenty. Check the "Resize" options in your graphics editor program or, if the program doesn't seem to have any Resize options, download Irfanview, a simple graphics editor, from the forum - the link is in the tutorial I linked to above.
- The little green camera icon the tutorial mentions only appears when you either start a new Topic or click on the "Reply To Topic" link below your username at the top of the screen. You won't see it if you reply to threads using the "Quick Reply" box at the bottom of the screen.
Note that these restrictions about file size or filename don't apply to CCF Gallery files, or files stored off-site.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
