Posting photos into your topic......

[greenwoo]

This is a question that comes up fairly often from new members.

To keep the servers from clogging up with photos we prefer to encourage members to post photos from an external link, ie/ from an external photo hosting site such as flickr, picassa, photobucket ( to name just 3). In reality the process is extremely simple and once you've done this a couple of times i'm sure it will become second nature.

So how to?
well 1st things 1st, you need to have an account with an external host, after that it really is as simple as:
1/ uploading the piccies to that site
2/ resizing them ( we suggest that 640/480 is a sensible size for viewing)
3/ linking the piccies to the 'post' ( message) that you are writing.

so:
Upload:
each site will work in pretty much the same way, once you have an account it will likely just be a case of navigating on your pc when prompted, selecting the photos(s) and hitting the necessary button, or possibly just dragging the photos to an 'upload box'. Many online hosts allow the user to have multiple folders within their own library, do note that if you move the pic from 1 folder to another at any stage AFTER you have posted a link - then that link will be broken and the piccies will not display. So if you're setting up an online account for the 1st time worth thinking about how you might be using it into the future - ie/ if you are going to use it for things other than just cars - then perhaps setting up a folder or two at the outset for cars, family , 'whatever'....would be best and then always make sure that your piccies are in the right place before using any links/codes.

Resizing. If you are uploading a few photos it is far easier to resize them on your pc, windows normally has tools built in ( or free to download via microsoft) to resize pics. Its possible to do a whole batch in a few seconds. Otherwise many of the hosting sites will allow you to edit your pic online - and that should include size. We suggest 640/480 abs max, you can always 'preview' your post and therefore see the size of your pc before 'submitting' your actual post....it may be that 320-240 works better in the context of what you have written, especially if the content is picture heavy.

Linking> there's normally 2 ways of doing this - using a normal web type url - ie/ http/photobucket/........ OR what's called an IMG code. It's the latter that is the better way to do this. Somewhere on the page where you are viewing your photos online will be an icon relating to 'Sharing' your photo. Within that section look for anything that says IMG code and copy that ( usual right click/left click with the mouse). Once you have copied the IMG code you can just past this straight into the post/message that you are typing - as long as what you paste in starts with IMG and ends with IMG then you should be good to go. Check by previewing your message and you should see the photo now in place of that IMG code.

here's a short tutorial on doing this using photobucket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYxAaFmbrL8

doing the same via picasa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNzGBPs2Wgs