What's new
What's new

Posting Pictures on the South Bend Forum

Paula

Titanium
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Location
Indiana, USA
Posting Pictures

**Note: Great work by Paula, doing the original write up here. But as of 5-19-2022, these instructions in the first posts no longer work with system upgrades. Always go toward the last page of the thread for more up to date information regarding this.


You are encouraged to place pictures within your posts in the South Bend Forum. (I heard somewhere that each one is worth 1000 words!) Unlike some forums out there, Practical Machinist does not host forum members’ pictures -- they must exist on a separate internet server.*

In some cases, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) account includes a modest picture-hosting provision. If not, there are numerous picture-hosting services available on the internet. One of the most popular is Photobucket.com. I have used this service for several years, and it has proven reliable and simple to use. Since I am most familiar with Photobucket, I will use it as an example for the purposes of this tutorial, though other image hosting services will no doubt function in a similar manner.

Photobucket has two basic types of accounts: “Free” and “Pro”. The free account is fine for most users, but if you post a lot of pictures, the modest cost (a couple bucks a month) of the Pro account may be worthwhile for you. Once you have created your account, the first step is to load your pictures into Photobucket. These can be pictures that you took with a digital camera, and uploaded to your computer, images that you have scanned, or even images copied from elsewhere on the net. Note that in the latter two cases, the subject images can only be those which are in the public domain (non-copyrighted).

Though not an absolute requirement, it’s very handy to have some kind of image-editing program on your computer for re-sizing, rotating, cropping, etc. of your pictures. I use a very old (circa 1997) copy of MicroGrafx Picture Publisher that was bundled with the first digital camera I purchased. It has PhotoShop-like capabilities, but nothing so elaborate is needed. There are numerous shareware programs available out there that will do the basics. Just Google something like “Image Editing Software”.

Once you have uploaded your images to Photobucket, the rest is easy. Just go to the particular “album” in Photobucket where the image you want is located. You will see a “thumbnail” (reduced size version) of the picture, and below it will be several “html” codes for you to select from:

THUMBS.jpg


To place the image in your post, simply click on IMG Code. The word Copied will appear, indicating that the image URL has been copied to your Windows “clipboard”. Now, go to the South Bend Forum window where you are composing your post. Right-click where you want the image to appear, and click “paste”, and the image’s URL will appear. That’s all there is to it! When you click on “Add New Topic” (or “Add Reply”), your image will magically appear where you pasted the Photobucket IMG Code in your post.

In general, placing any valid image URL between the tags will cause the image to appear in your post.


Getting the Size Right

When posting images to this forum, it is important that the image (or images) are not so large so as to cause difficulties for those viewing the thread. When a very large image appears in a post, most browsers will re-format every post in the thread to the same width as the post with the large image, making it necessary to scroll back-and-forth to read the text in a normal size window. For this reason, the recommended maximum image size is 800 x 600 pixels. Those refusing to follow this guideline are subject to having the offending image converted to a link, which will open the image in a separate window when clicked.

With Photobucket, re-sizing your images is easy...

1) On your Photobucket page, go to the “thumbnail” of the oversize image, and click edit:

PB1.jpg


2) The image opens, and several editing options appear above the image. Click on Resize.

3) A drop-down menu displays the available image size options. Click on Message Board (640 x 480) (or select a smaller size, if desired):

PB3.jpg


And that’s all there is to that.


For Advanced Users

If you want to get fancy, you can make your image “clickable”, such that when someone clicks on it, a full-resolution image will open in a new window. To do this with Photobucket, you will need to upload two separate versions of your image, with different titles (Example: MyLathe-large.jpg and MyLathe-small.jpg). The small image (up to 640 x 480 size) will be the one that will appear in your post, and when clicked upon will open a new window with the LARGE image. Use the following format to place the clickable-image in your forum post...

[ url="Photobucket Direct Link for large image"]"Photobucket IMG Code for small image"[/url ]

...replacing the text in quotes with the appropriate Photobucket link -- no spaces. Using this method, you will get the small image in your post (with a blue border), and when someone clicks on it, a new window will open with the large image. Nifty! Here's an example:




That pretty well covers the basics. If there are any questions, comments, corrections, etc., feel free to post them here in this thread.

Good luck!

Paula

___________________________________________________

*Since adopting the new forum software, this is no longer true. Now you have the option of uploading your own images to the forum, without having to have them hosted on another server.

After you click "Post Reply", down below the "Reply to Thread" box, there is another box called "Additional Options". Click on "Manage Attachments" to upload images from your computer. Note that these images will not be imbedded in the text of your post, but will appear as "thumbnails" at the bottom of your post (as shown in the example below), which can be clicked to open the full-size image.
 

Attachments

  • 1943CAT1.JPG
    1943CAT1.JPG
    35.5 KB · Views: 1,391
Last edited by a moderator:
Outstanding Paula. Only thing I would comment on is that the "copied" business (on my machine) is imaginary using Firefox. I have to copy them in the old way


John
 
Good point, John. In that case, one needs to right-click on the URL and select "copy".

My instructions are based on using Internet Explorer 7. Users of other browsers are encouraged to post amendments to the procedures listed above, based on their own browser configurations.

Paula
 
Correct.gif


...and here's a picture of my grandfather:

SBLGEEZR.jpg


Safety glasses weren't required back then (but those hats were! :rolleyes: )

Paula
 
There's a reason those hats were often seen - shops
often had sorta spotty, if not nonexistent, heat.

Got cold in the wintertime!

Hat like that keeps the chills at bay. I won't
dare show a photo of the wool cap I keep with my
basement shop clothes, I've had threats to burn
the thing it's so filthy.

Shops were a tough place - not much light, not
much heat, the mirror on your gerstner toolbox
was so you could get the thing out of your eye
before it got infected.

I think your grand-dad was running a south bend
there...

Jim
 
Just in case anyone doesn't realize we're all just kidding around here, both of those photos are from South Bend literature -- the first from the 1956 general catalog, and the second from Bulletin H4, "Keeping Your Lathe In Trim".

Paula
 
He's not management. All the workmen of that era dressed like that gentleman. And management shaved. There were still a few of those men around until the early 60's.
 
I don't want to sound to harsh on the old guy, or the picture, since I typically enjoy those old pics. But since we're pick'n at it... ... ...

No one's gonna mention the tie or the watch chain?

Great-Grandpa ( a proud union machinist 'till about '80) never kept is pocket watch on his chest. ;)
I think he only wore a tie to funerals. And he'd be proud (God rest his soul.) if I mentioned I don't even own one. =}
 
Mike...

"In order for that "copied" feature to work in ANY browser other than IE one must have Flash Player installed. Using Flash Player to copy is a neat programming trick!"

Well, this may be true for most browsers--I don't need Flash in Safari on my Mac...and in any of the browsers--I can copy directly to my desktop anyway by dragging the pic--what you refer to is the driver from Flash for java applets IIRC...

Joe
 
Thanks Paula I think I will particpate a little more now I am aple to upload photos.I am new and learing, as you see hear I just completed the plates.
Cliff(SC)
 








 
Back
Top