Creating a Signature & Posting Pictures

[Guest]

I would like to thank MarchieB for taking the time to write this out.

 

Posting Photos

 

Seeing as this topic comes up so very frequently I've written up this little tutorial to help anyone interested in adding pictures to their posts as well as e-mail and home page links.

 

In order to add a picture the photo must be in some digital form. There are three general ways to accomplish this; a digital camera photo, a photo CD created from 35 mm film, or an image/photo that has been scanned. The best format to use is .jpg as it is the fastest to load on a web page.

 

The picture must then be uploaded to a web server. This allows the photo to be viewed over the Internet. Again there are a few ways of doing this. The first is to have your own web site, but since this is not possible and impractical for everyone there are alternatives. Most of the larger web hosts have created photo album programs so that everyone can share photos with their families and friends. If you perform a search for "free photo album" you will see many of these are available. Dues paying club members can use the gallery on the FGMCC server.

 

Your photos need to be loaded into one of these photo albums so that they can be linked to in your signature.

 

Once you have created your photo album, uploaded your photos and they are visible online you are ready to link them to your signature. Linking allows the FGMC Message Forum program to retrieve the photo from the album and show it in your sig. Here is how it is done.

1. Go to your photo album and open the photo you wish to post.

2. Click on the photo with your right mouse button (Right Click).

3. Select the properties option.

4. There will be an Address (URL) area. This is the location on the Internet where your photo can be found. Highlight this address by left clicking at the beginning of the text, now while holding down the mouse button drag the mouse across all the text you want to highlight, then release the mouse button

5. Right click on the text that has been highlighted and select copy. Please note nothing significant will happen ... no bells and whistles but it has been copied. Also Windows can only cut/copy one thing at a time if you select and copy something else it will erase whatever was previously cut/copied.

6. Go to the FGMC.com Message Forum Board and either reply to an existing thread or start a new thread. In the text area right click and select paste. This will paste the copied text into your message. Now add these tags before and after the text you just pasted. NOTE there cannot be ANY spaces between the text and these tags.

BEFORE =

This is what it should look like

NOTE when using MSN ANYTHING after the .jpg in the file name must be removed after it is pasted

7. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it should have worked. If it didn't don't worry there are many people on the board who are willing to help you out. Ask lots of questions!

 

If you wish to add a photo to your signature:

 

Once you have gotten your photo working to your satisfaction in a regular post you then can add it to your Signature in your Profile. Click on "My Stuff" and "Edit Profile" in the top of the Message Board. There is a section for your Signature. Add the same text from your post to this area.

 

NEW BOARD FUNCTION

With the new board version being released an image button has been added to post images.

The same basic rules for the url apply as above the only exception is that you DO NOT have to add the tags as the board does this on its own (IF YOU USE THE IMAGE BUTTON)