Posting pictures

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Alisdair

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Posting pictures
« on: May 28, 2011, 11:04:29 AM »
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words... So the more pictures you post, the better the forum will be!
Before you post a photograph to the Forum, please make sure it's not going to be too big. For landscape-shape pictures, keep the width down to an absolute maximum of 760 pixels. For portrait-shape pictures, height no more than 560 pixels at the very most. Anything bigger than that won't fit on most computer screens, so people viewing it would have to scroll around too much to see it all.
We have set an absolute size limit of 250KB for each picture – if you try to load a bigger picture, the Forum won't take it. And it's worth noting that unless you have a really good internet connection, the bigger the picture, the more likely you are to have troubles posting your message. Pictures of around 60KB to 80KB can look perfectly OK on the screen, and will load much more quickly. So do treat that 250KB limit as an absolute maximum.
The picture files we can load are .jpg, .gif and .png.
Loading a picture with your message is easy:
When you have written your text, click on Additional Options... (at the bottom, on the left). Under Attach, click on the Choose File button, to open a box showing the folders on your computer. Navigate through these just as you would to find any file, and when you have found the photo you want click on it. The name of the file will then replace the "No file chosen" words, beside the Choose File button. (Note: you won't see the actual photo until you have posted the whole message to the Forum.)
So that people can find your pictures easily, try to keep all the pictures in any one message linked to the topic of that message. For example, if the topic is "Cyclamen", you could post several cyclamen photos, but if for comparison you want to show a picture of the Gladiolus tristis which grows even better in your garden, load that picture in a separate Gladiolus posting, and in the Cyclamen message just say something like "Gladiolus tristis does even better for me – see my separate Gladiolus post".
If the photo is of a plant, please make sure that the plant's name – if you know it – shows in the text of your message. This makes sure that people searching for pictures of that plant can find yours. The same applies to other picture subjects: a named public garden, for instance, or a person.
When the message is exactly as you want it, don't forget to click on the Post button at the bottom.
You keep the copyright of any photo you post on this Forum; click here for more details.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2011, 08:04:40 AM by Alisdair »
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Loading multiple pictures
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2011, 02:42:38 PM »
If you want to add more than one picture, click on More Attachments, using the blue Browse button to find and then attach the next picture, and so on.
If your internet connection is not a really good broadband one, you may find that a message with lots of pictures, especially if they are big ones, is troublesome to load. In fact it's very rare that you'll want to attach more than three or four pictures at the outside to any message, and even with that number the best way of avoiding internet connection problems is to keep the size of the individual pictures down, say to around 80KB each.
Keeping the number of pictures in a single message down makes it easier for you to keep the pictures near the relevant text. And it makes it easier for other people to read the message, and for them to refer to your topic in their own posts.
We have set an absolute limit of ten to the number of pictures you can attach to a single message, but really you shouldn't ever need to approach that limit.
If in spite of all this your internet connection still gives you problems loading more than one picture, just put one in your first message, post that message, then reply to your own message with a second one, keeping the same heading, with the second picture and the text that goes with it.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2011, 09:14:20 AM by Alisdair »
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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How to Embed Pictures in the Text
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2011, 02:44:53 PM »
By default, when you add pictures to a message, they will show at the end of the message.
If you want them to appear with the text instead, this is what to do:
At the place in your message where you want the first picture to show, key in this code:
{attachthumb=1}
But use square brackets [  ] instead of these squiggly ones! (I had to use the squiggly ones so that the system wouldn't hunt for a non-existent attachment, as there is no attachment with this message!)
Then in the place for the second picture, key in
{attachthumb=2}
again using the square brackets [  ] instead of the squiggly ones. And so on.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2011, 02:35:56 PM by Alisdair »
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Plant Identification Photos
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2011, 02:46:53 PM »
To help identify a plant, photos should obviously be as clear and sharp as possible. The ideal is a close-up of the flower, with a second photo showing the plant with its leaves. Often, the lower leaves are different from those on the flowering stem; it's important to show the lower leaves as well.
In the text of your message give as much information as you can about where you saw the plant, if it was growing wild: the type of habitat as well as the location. Size details also help – height of plant, length and width of leaf and of petals etc.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Seeing your pictures right away
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2011, 02:55:19 PM »
The Preview button in the message panel does just preview the message in its pre-posting format, so it won't show any actual photos you've put in your message. Clicking on the Post button is what does embed them in the message.
So that you can see all your messages in their final form right away, go to your Profile and under Modify Profile click on Look and Layour Preferences, then check the box next to "Return to topics after posting by default", then click on the Change Profile button. Then, when you've finished writing any message, as soon as you click on the Post button you will see the message in its posted format, complete with photos etc.
If you want to change the message when you see it after clicking on Post, that's easily done. Just click on Modify.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society