How to post a pic.

[Blupupher]

Ok, many people ask how to post pictures on forums. This is a quick tutorial on how to do it.
There are 2 ways to do it on this forum.
First is using the web to host your pictures described here, the second is described in the post below.


This works on forums using both vBulletin (what we have now) and phpBB (what we used to have) software. As far as others, it should be the same, but I don't know for sure.
For starters, the picture you want to post must be hosted online somewhere. This means that you have to be online and type in an address in your browser to see it. It will not work linked directly from your computer.
You must know the exact address of the picture you want to post. The address will end with a .jpg or a .gif (there are others, but these are the 2 most common picture formats).

Once you know where the picture is located, you will need to tell the software that you want a picture and not words. This is done with what are called tags. If your familiar with writing html, it is the same thing, just using different tags as to what you want it to do. Tags have a beginning and an end. For a picture, you will use a tag. This tells the software that you want an image to be displayed ().

It will look like this when you type it into the reply section:


(this is a made up address)

When you submit your reply, it will show the picture you have linked to.

As for where to host your pictures, that is up to you. The most reliable way is to get some web space and put them there. These cost money, but always work. There are some free image servers out there, but most do not allow off site linking, or if they do, it does not work 1/2 the time. I have free space that my ISP provides me for mine.
I have found a site that lists free image servers. How long they will be free and work, I don't know, but if you need a pic posted fast and for just a short time, try one of these.
CLICK HERE (http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Image_Hosting/)

Also, a fellow Jeeper (Phyte) on JU started a site for pic hosting. 3 options, free with 20 pics and no hotlinks, only url address. $10/yr for 1000 pics, and $24/yr for unlimited pics. All have unlimited bandwidth. it is called On Click Pix (http://www.onclickpix.com/?p=plans)

Note: These links and any links from it are in no way connected to 4WDH, 4WD.com or myself. This is not an endorsement of them, just informational purposes. Use them at your own risk.


Now how do you get the pictures web address? Easiest way is to look at the address bar if it is only a picture displayed and copy that. If it is a web page with several pictures, it is still easy. Put your mouse pointer over the image you want to know the address to, right click it, and select "Properties". Then to the right of where it says "Address", right click that, click on "Select All", right click again, and select "Copy". This has copied the address. When you go to the forum to post, type the tag.Here is an image from my web, see if you can get the address.












No peeking...







if you did it right, you should have found:
http://darkwolfpichosting.com/users/blupupher/texasflagwave.jpg

[Blupupher]

This forum allows you to attach an image directly from your computer. This is great because it means you can post a picture from anywhere without having to upload a picture onto the web. The drawback is that this image uses resources at the 4wd.com server, so the image size is limited. If your picture is to large of a file, you will need to decrease the size of the pic to reduce the file size.

To attach a picture, scroll down when posting and click on the "Manage Attachments" button. This will bring up a new window. click the "Browse" button and find the location on your computer where the picture is saved at. Double click on it, then click on "Upload". Once it is uploaded, the image is attached, just click on "Close Window" and your image is now ready to be seen. If you attach more than 1 file, the pics will not show up in the post, but will show up as links.

[Blupupher]

One final note. Be aware of your image size if linking to the web. Most users still use dial-up to get online. Many digital cameras take pictures of 1mb or more in size, with screen resolutions of 1200x1600. These are HUGE!
So for the sake of us poor saps who can't afford the newest and fastest internet connections, please keep the file size and pic size to a reasonable amount (a resolution of 640x480 is still a good size and the file size is not that large, and most all details can be seen still). If you must post a large pic or many smaller pics, please put a warning in the title somewhere (ie "**56k warning!**").
Thank you and happy posting.