For noobs, how to add images to your questions / replies

[BigKriss]

For noobs, how to add images to your questions / replies

If you have a digital camera that you take pictures with, often the size of the picture is very large (the pixel dimensions or resolution of the image). Having a large sized picture makes it difficult for viewing for board members running a lower resoultion on their desktop. The program I use to resize the images is "Image Resizer" by microsoft. Found here

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

It enables a option on your mouse's toolbar that lets you to resize images in four resolutions, I normally choose 640x480. It's up to you though.

Right mouse click to bring up the toolbar

http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/1212/resize15nb.jpg

Click on re-size pictures you will be presented with this menu.
http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/8812/resize28jw.jpg

If your file name is pictbmwe34.jpg, then the old file is copied and the new file will be named pictbmwe34(Small).jpg for a 640x480 resolution.

The server on bimmer.info allows you store photo’s the attached images function when your posting. I find it easier to use an external host for all the files. The host I use is called at www.imageshack.us

To make uploading the files to the server faster I use this utility, you must have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed.

Imageshack QuickLoad v1.0.32 http://reg.imageshack.us/isql.1.0.32.msi

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/7523/imageshackquickupload9rl.jpg

It greatly speeds up the time that it you gives you the html code for the image.

However you don’t have to use this utility. After you choose your picture ready to be hosted, you upload the picture and you will be given a screen with a few options. What we want to put in a question / response is the (the address to the link to the image). You will see this next to “Direct link to image”. It will give you something like

http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/7994/imageshack31jw.jpg

when putting the pic in the post, you will need to add the address of where the image is located (see above)

the and around the pictures address makes it show up on the screen with the text. The can be uppercase also. I hope this helps.

[uscharalph]

It's also a good idea to add the year (maybe even the production month) and model of your BMW into your title, so when you ask questions, people can give you a more educated answer

[uscharalph]

It's also a good idea to add the year (maybe even the production month) and model of your BMW into your title, so when you ask questions, people can give you a more educated answer
Actually that information is stored in the Additional information section of your user profile. It's the box titled: Year/Make/Model/Mileage and it is shown on all your posts.

[mattyb]

thanx mate for the help the other day. im not a spastic but its easy to fall behind in the technoligy that u younger fellas have the know how of. it wasnt that hard and i dun learn me a few things as i went along.

[bimmerd00d]

Thanks for the writeup, sorry it took me so long to sticky!

[Gayle]

What causes the signature pictures that people post to vary so much in size?

When I eventually get around to do one, I would like one that is smaller.

[liquidtiger720]

What causes the signature pictures that people post to vary so much in size?

When I eventually get around to do one, I would like one that is smaller.

Because people decide on how big or small they want it when they make the picture and host it. I tried to keep mine to a minimum. I find big ones, get annoying over time and can cause pages to load up slower.

[uscharalph]

What causes the signature pictures that people post to vary so much in size?

When I eventually get around to do one, I would like one that is smaller.
Gayle, the best thing to do for your signature picture is host a few different sizes here: http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/index.html. You can then experiment from there.

Another thing you can do is save someones signature picture which is the size you want on you hard drive. Open that picture in paint. Click on image, thyen click on attributes. This will give you the size in pixels. For example Liguidtigers is: 600 x 151, mine is 250 x 214.

[genphreak]

Great thread Kriss, I've been thinking but not acting on this point for some time.

Oversized images are clearly a problem on the board.

I also think the forum text size should be smaller and signature pics should be no more than 780x150 in size... I set my browser to reduce the text size (in FireFox select View>Text size), but I can only go one increment before the pixelation makes some of it illegible...

Perhaps thread will really help to releive us of some of the oversized images. There is another way, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to tack my experince with the board on-

Advice for new members on uploading pictures:

When you want to post pictures to the forum you can do so without setting up hosting and software as Kriss describes. You can simply use the 'Manage attachments' button below the dialogue box* you type your post in. Press this button to search the pictures from your computer and upload them.

* To see this you may need to click 'Go advanced'

The only snag to this two-click approach is that the forum limits picture sizes (file sizes) to 39KB. However if you stick with me through this explanation I'll show you how easy it is to compress your images so they come in under the 39KB limitation. It will help you to do so at other times, such as when adding them to emails.

Background:
The limitation is necessary as otherwise it would stress the forum connection too much as people start uploading large pictures.

This is because most pictures we get are much larger than they need to be to display online properly. Digital cameras typically take a 5MB image, yet to show this to your buddies on the board you really only need a 30KB picture. The rest of the file-size is only necessary if you want to make a nice high-defintion print. So how hard is it to reduce the size?

Well its really easy if you have a Picture Editor program. If not you can download a good shareware one from somehwere like www.tucows.net or there is the gimp if you have a bit of more patience and want to get to use one of the best image editors there is you can always download the Gimp: gimp-win.sourceforge.net/. It's free.

To reduce your pictures file-size, simply open it with your picture editor (ie ULead, Photoshop, PrintShop, etc.). Any good picture editor these days has the ability to reduce 2 things that help; resolution and the physical image size. (Overall definition is a multiple of both).

First thing to do is reduce the physical image size to no more than 2 inches high. Your imaging program may describe this as 50mm, 142 pixels, dots or picas high. Be careful not to reduce 'canvas size' and cut your picture down, the idea here is to reduce its size only, not crop it (unless you wish to do this- cropping cuts away unecessary space in the picture leaving more room for your subject matter in the end-result).

The width is less of a problem as it scrolls out the side of the forum's page. Anything greater than 1014 pixels will go beyond the side of the page. If you upload two or more images this way, they will display side by side in the page unless they go beyond the page width, in which case it will 'wrap' the next image (like it wraps text to the next line) below.

Second thing is reduce the image resolution to 72dpi (what computer screens display at).

You must then save the file as a compressed image (such as gif, png, jpg, jpeg, pdf). You can find these options in your picture editor's 'Save As' dialogue (select File>Save As) but try first to use an Export tool: It often does a better job and allows you to preview the end-result and get an estimate of its filesize. This often means selecting File>Export>(choose a file type and name) and then press OK, but on more modern editors this is often more refined and gets called something like 'Save for Web'.

To check the size of the resultant picture (hovering your mouse over the filename usually works) you will see your file frop down in size enormously.

Now you can simply upload this image as an attachment to your post. Some people prefer hosting... if you don't have special software on your computer this is a great way to do it. Of course one needs these skills regardless to manage your pictures efficiently, attach them to emails and web pages (when you are not slothing on the board, that is) :)

I only host an image if the pic I want to upload is too large and detailed to work by doing the above. I hope all this helps some some fellow members to post pictures more easily as even a small picture can paint a thousand words :) GP

PS: The image below was made using the Gimp as above and is only 23KB in size!
It shows where you can click in your post to add your compressed pictures.

[ericcamaro]

all I can do is get it to show the link for my sig pic why is this???