Seems like the question of how to post pictures on the forum pops up quite frequently. A while back I posted a tutorial on how to do it using PhotoBucket. But, alas, over time, PhotoBucket has made so many changes to their site that the tutorial may be getting hard for some to follow. Other changes have led to performance problems for some and some folks just don't like having to create yet another account and put their email address out there.
There are a couple of other ways to post pictures to the forum without having to use a third party host like PhotoBucket, imageShack etc. One is using the Pictures and Albums feature of the forum and the other is the Manage Attachments feature. I prefer the Pictures and Albums feature because it lets you group the pictures in albums and they are easy to find if you need to go back later and reference them in another thread. But I will attempt to explain both.
Pictures and Albums Method
What I do after I've done a smoke, taken pictures and am ready to post is the following. Find the User CP menu item in the top left area of your browser window.
Right-click and select Open link in new tab.
This will give you two tabs to work in -- one showing the thread you are composing and one showing the album where you put your pictures. It is not required that you do that but for me it makes it easier to switch back and forth as I am composing the thread and inserting the pictures.
On the tab where you have the User CP open, down the left side a bit you will see the Pictures and Albums link.
Click on it to open the Pictures and Albums area. To create a new album, click on the Add Album link.
The new album page will appear.
Here you can give your album a title and description and set the type. You can leave the type Public if the pictures will be for a normal thread. After you have the settings the way you like, click the Submit button.
The next step is to upload your pictures. Click on one of the Upload Pictures links. They are pretty easy to find.
This (surprisingly enough) will open the upload pictures page.
A couple of things worth noting on this page are the Pictures Remaining and the Maximums. The Pictures Remaining count is for that single album -- not all of your pictures. The file size and picture dimension maximums don't really matter as the forum software will resize any picture you upload to allowable sizes. You can only upload 10 pictures at a time but you can do it multiple times if you have more than 10.
Click on one of the Choose File button and your computer's Open File dialog box should appear.
Click on a file and click Open. You will be taken back to the Upload Pictures page and the file you selected will show next to the Choose File button that you clicked earlier. Unfortunately you can only select one file at a time. To select additional files you must click on another Choose File button and select an additional file and repeat this process until you have all of your files selected. As you can see I have 6 files selected for upload in the screenshot below which required me to repeat the process each time to add an additional file.
After you have all of your files selected click on the Upload Pictures button. After your pictures are uploaded, you will see the Edit Pictures page where you can change the caption. I usually skip this step and just click on the Save Changes button.
To post the picture into the thread, click and highlight the entire BB code for the picture you want to post.
Right click and click Copy.
Then switch to the tab where you are composing your thread and paste the BB code into the body of your thread.
Repeat until you have all of the pictures placed in your thread and you're done.
Manage Attachments Method
Another method of posting pictures to use the Manage Attachments button. Down towards the bottom of the new post or new thread editing window you will see a button labeled Manage Attachments.
Click on this button and the following window will appear.
To add files use the same method as described above. Click on a Choose File button then select the file from the Open File dialog box and repeat until all the files are selected then click Upload. The screen will change to reflect the files uploaded and you can click Close this window if you are done.
At this point you can submit the thread/post and the pictures will show as thumbnails at the bottom of your post.
But I prefer to have my pictures inline with the post so that people reading the post don't have to scroll to the end then click on the thumbnails and scroll through the pictures in a separate window. To post the pictures inline from attachments click on one of the file names in the Attach Files area.
The attachment will open up in a new browser window. Copy the URL from the browser address bar then switch back to your thread/post and click on the Insert Image button.
The following box should open.
Hit Backspace or whatever to get rid of the text so the box looks like this.
Then paste the URL you copied from the address bar when viewing your attachment into the box.
Click OK to paste it into the post.
Now your pictures will appear inline and lazy people like me won't have to click on the thumbnails and scroll through them in a separate window.
I hope this thread is helpful and I reserve the right to edit and cleanup as time goes on.
Dave
There are a couple of other ways to post pictures to the forum without having to use a third party host like PhotoBucket, imageShack etc. One is using the Pictures and Albums feature of the forum and the other is the Manage Attachments feature. I prefer the Pictures and Albums feature because it lets you group the pictures in albums and they are easy to find if you need to go back later and reference them in another thread. But I will attempt to explain both.
Pictures and Albums Method
What I do after I've done a smoke, taken pictures and am ready to post is the following. Find the User CP menu item in the top left area of your browser window.
Right-click and select Open link in new tab.
This will give you two tabs to work in -- one showing the thread you are composing and one showing the album where you put your pictures. It is not required that you do that but for me it makes it easier to switch back and forth as I am composing the thread and inserting the pictures.
On the tab where you have the User CP open, down the left side a bit you will see the Pictures and Albums link.
Click on it to open the Pictures and Albums area. To create a new album, click on the Add Album link.
The new album page will appear.
Here you can give your album a title and description and set the type. You can leave the type Public if the pictures will be for a normal thread. After you have the settings the way you like, click the Submit button.
The next step is to upload your pictures. Click on one of the Upload Pictures links. They are pretty easy to find.
This (surprisingly enough) will open the upload pictures page.
A couple of things worth noting on this page are the Pictures Remaining and the Maximums. The Pictures Remaining count is for that single album -- not all of your pictures. The file size and picture dimension maximums don't really matter as the forum software will resize any picture you upload to allowable sizes. You can only upload 10 pictures at a time but you can do it multiple times if you have more than 10.
Click on one of the Choose File button and your computer's Open File dialog box should appear.
Click on a file and click Open. You will be taken back to the Upload Pictures page and the file you selected will show next to the Choose File button that you clicked earlier. Unfortunately you can only select one file at a time. To select additional files you must click on another Choose File button and select an additional file and repeat this process until you have all of your files selected. As you can see I have 6 files selected for upload in the screenshot below which required me to repeat the process each time to add an additional file.
After you have all of your files selected click on the Upload Pictures button. After your pictures are uploaded, you will see the Edit Pictures page where you can change the caption. I usually skip this step and just click on the Save Changes button.
To post the picture into the thread, click and highlight the entire BB code for the picture you want to post.
Right click and click Copy.
Then switch to the tab where you are composing your thread and paste the BB code into the body of your thread.
Repeat until you have all of the pictures placed in your thread and you're done.
Manage Attachments Method
Another method of posting pictures to use the Manage Attachments button. Down towards the bottom of the new post or new thread editing window you will see a button labeled Manage Attachments.
Click on this button and the following window will appear.
To add files use the same method as described above. Click on a Choose File button then select the file from the Open File dialog box and repeat until all the files are selected then click Upload. The screen will change to reflect the files uploaded and you can click Close this window if you are done.
At this point you can submit the thread/post and the pictures will show as thumbnails at the bottom of your post.
But I prefer to have my pictures inline with the post so that people reading the post don't have to scroll to the end then click on the thumbnails and scroll through the pictures in a separate window. To post the pictures inline from attachments click on one of the file names in the Attach Files area.
The attachment will open up in a new browser window. Copy the URL from the browser address bar then switch back to your thread/post and click on the Insert Image button.
The following box should open.
Hit Backspace or whatever to get rid of the text so the box looks like this.
Then paste the URL you copied from the address bar when viewing your attachment into the box.
Click OK to paste it into the post.
Now your pictures will appear inline and lazy people like me won't have to click on the thumbnails and scroll through them in a separate window.
I hope this thread is helpful and I reserve the right to edit and cleanup as time goes on.
Dave
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