Viewing and Posting pictures on the Forum

[Maggi Young]

It has been mentioned that most of the photos on the new forum are very small, shown in "thumbnail" size. The forum setup is, generally, arranged to show pictures in this small, "preview" type way when a page is opened.
This has several advantages. It makes each page file smaller and therefore quicker to upload... a feature especially appreciated by those using dial-up rather than broadband connections.
This also allows anyone wanting a quick browse through the page to get a flavour of the photographs, then they need only enlarge those they are keen to see more of.
AND ...THIS IS THE POINT AT ISSUE : The thumbnails you see are just that.. they are mini previews: left click once with your mouse on the photo or the file name below it and the photo will be displayed at its full size.
There is no way to enlarge the forumists ID photos, as far as I know, which, in most of our cases, is probably just as well!!

The Scottish Rock Garden Club Web Team is pleased to announce that a feature to allow automatic resizing of photographs loaded to the SRGC Forum has been added. This will remove the need for forumists to resize photos before posting.

We hope this will encourage posting from those who found resizing difficult or time-consuming.

Many thanks to Fred C. our wonderful Forum Admin for this facility.

Further update  ..... A reminder about posting photos
  the SRGC Forum has undergone some changes recently and if using the  (attachimg=1)  code ( " inline full-size image option" )  - with the square brackets (rather than the ones I've used to allow you to see without confusing the system with code) it is possible to attach  larger photo sizes which will be automatically resized to the page and open in the  text box.


These are  the square  brackets  [  ]

 

This screengrab shows what a post will look like when this method is  used to add photos in the text - using pretty much any device it seems, i-pad, smartphone, whatever! [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[mark smyth]

I'm happy with the thumnails. The larger image appears very quickly, another click send it back to athumbnail and one moves on to the next

[Maggi Young]

Thanks, Mark, that's the reasoned approach.

[Maggi Young]

Hello, just a note to remind everyone that the photos shown in the forum pages are merely thumbnails... to see a full sized version of any pic, just click on the picture and a larger version will open for you to see the image more clearly.
Example, [ Guests cannot view attachments ] shows a thumbnail shot... click on the picture to see the full horror of a pink spider!
Clicked photo will expand to this size :

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Expanded photo may be larger or smaller than this example but will always give you a clearer image than the thumbnail.

This shows how the text of  a post like this will look before posting ....

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Maggi Young]

A point about using "Photobucket" to upload photos to the Forum:

    Photobucket- problems with picture display
« on: 30th December 2008  at 10:45:24 AM »   

 From Andrew:

I have just come to a topic that is a month old and the pictures that have been posted are not there because the user has used photobucket and the pictures have been deleted or moved on photobucket.

I have also had this with a topic that was a couple of months old. One of the great features of this site is being able to search previous posts and find photos for comparision.

So can all users of photobucket consider its use please, are you still going to be using/have access to it in one/two/ten years time, is photobucket still going to be around, do you have backups of all your photos elsewhere ?

Other users upload photos to forum directly, it is not hard and they will hopefully be around for a long time to come.

I suspect it is going too far to call for a ban on photobuckets use, Maggi ?

Rant over, thank you for reading, I hope you can see where I am coming from  .

My reply:

A good point, Andrew. I have noticed this problem on other sites and was aware that it could happen here....though happily it is rare.
As Andrew says, it is not hard to upload photos to the Forum and if users would be good enough to use other methods than Photobucket, that would be much appreciated.

If anyone has uploaded photos by that route, could they perhaps look back at their posts to check that the pix are still visible and possibly repost them by other means. Posts are available to modify without lmit of time , so the original post can easily be amended.



Andrew, and others, is you would be so kind as to inform me of threads/posts where you come across this problem, I will be pleased to contact the Posters to see if they can re-post.

 Cheers,
 Maggi

[Maggi Young]

I post again here, a note from many moons ago, in the  "Trouble posting to the forum? Help is at hand! "
on: February 04, 2007 ...it seems that this is a point which bears repetition 

A hint about posting photos: please include the name of the plant in the text of your post. Plant names will show in file names displayed beneath some picture posts, depending on how they are loaded, but such names are not picked up be the search facility.  As John Finch replied to a post:
"Hi,
lovely pictures - thank you.
I wonder if you may have time to edit your post to include the names of the flowers that you have shown as text.  When someone uses the search facility within the forum they do not find words that are only included as part of the image names.  The search only looks at the actual typed text within a post.

Just thinking of the future and making the SRGC forum as useful and searchable for others as possible.
cheers, John.



Well said, John. A useful point. Please take note , everyone! M

[Maggi Young]

I will take the chance here, to say again than photos for the Forum are best sized no more than 760 x 555pixels   and less than 200 Kb  to allow for ease of viewing on the average monitor, without scrolling left to right.  This 760 x 555 pixels size is great for landsacape format photos:  for portrait format, it would be best to stick to the smaller option of 560 x 418 or so for those.
The need to scroll irritates readers greatly, we have found!!


I would recommend that anyone new to the Forum read, and, PLEASE, pay attention to the advice given in this thread:
 "New to posting to the forum? Help is at hand!" http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2.0

Thanks! M

If you have any questions about these matters please email  info@srgc.org.uk

[Maggi Young]

It seems that there are still visitors to the Forum pages who are not aware that, in the case of the smaller photos appearing on these pages, that it is possible to left-mouse- click on each photo to bring up a larger version of the shot for your interest and pleasure!

  Think the photos look a bit small?
 Click the pic and see the difference!! 

[Maggi Young]

Please note this advice: We always suggest a maximum of 750 x 555 pixels for regular forum photo postings.... long experience has told us that this is a size which can be readily viewed on the majority of monitors  without scrolling from left to right

Larger photos especially when posted in multiples, are very tricky to see properly , because the east-west scroll bar is displayed at the foot of the post and the need to go  up and  down as well as back and forth , in an attempt to catch the main focus of a shot proves very irritating to many viewers!

 Pix 800  wide do not need too much scrolling to see the whole image, so many may be content to simply view what is initially shown on enlarging the picture...... but larger photos can effectively be impossible to "read" properly.  At least with the 750 by  555 maximum for landscape format, the reader has the pleasure of being able to see the entire image at once.
Or 750 pixels as a maximun length, of course.
Again, I emphasise that we are aware from the majority of our feedback that readers prefer the "official" size photos!

[Maggi Young]

As we get into our stride with a new year, may I  remind forumists that in spite of the fact that some folks have  large computer monitors, it is still Forum practice to have pictures posted at a maximum of 760 pixels wide (unless for particular magnification of ID features on occasion)
This is a more comfortable viewing size for those with smaller screens and also, I am advised, for anyone with a visual disability.
Thank you!
 
M

[Maggi Young]

Posting to the SRGC Forum

A device to resize your photos can be downloaded here:
 http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9993.0

Recently the number of pictures per post and the size of each picture, has been changed to be 5 (five) pictures per post and a maximum of 200kb per picture.
   
N. B. The Scottish Rock Garden Club Web Team is pleased to announce that a feature to allow automatic resizing of photographs loaded to the SRGC Forum has been added. This will remove the need for forumists to resize photos before posting.

We hope this will encourage posting from those who found resizing difficult or time-consuming.

Many thanks to Fred C. our wonderful Forum Admin for this facility.



Starting a New Topic
Browse to the board where you wish to post and select the New Topic button (positioned by default at both the top and the bottom of the board), which should take them to the Start new Topic screen. While this presents a number of options, the two most important are the Subject field and main Message field (not labeled as such, but obvious by its size). So enter your subject and start to type (or paste) your message in the main text area. If you're happy with your plain text message, you can post it by selecting the Post button and/or preview it first by selecting the Preview button.

Replying to a Post

Replying to a topic is nearly the same as starting a new topic, but it is not necessary to enter anything in the Subject field unless you wish to change what's already there.  You may also be able to do other things with the post, such as attaching a file to a post.

If 'Quick Reply' has been enabled, a simple Reply field will also appear after the posts on a page, but you will have to type your Bulletin Board Code and Smileys manually if you choose to use it.

Quoting a Post

To reply to a post by quoting it, you can either select the Quote button for the relevant post  and edit out any part you wish to discard or select the Reply button followed by copying and pasting therelvantwords between the quote code that appears when you click the "speech ballon" icon in the menu above the text box.

Using Smileys

Just click on a smiley to have it appear in the text  box where you last typed.



Attaching photos to a post
To make a post with photos, once you have the text box there, write your text then click on " Attachments and other options" at the bottom left under the text box..... a new area will appear with "ATTACH".............browse (more attachments) "

To load the first picture, click on  "Browse" ......a box will open which will allow you to navigate to the folder on your computer where you have the relevant photo stored..........
select the photo file from where you have it saved on your computer (by making a left-mouse-button click on it) this will enter the name of the photo file in the display section of the box.....next click on the "Open"  button in the box; the photo will be loaded ready to appear in the post (though pictures are not visible until the whole post has been loaded to the Forum by clicking the "POST"  button)
....  then  you can repeat the process, from clicking on the browse and  (more attachments) button and repeat the process for as many pictures as you have, up to FIVE  pictures in  each post.

You can add the photos up to FIVE at a time ... either at the end of your post,  by selecting  End-of-post-expandable thumbnail button  or use  one of the choices shown in the photo below:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

but it is easier to place your cursor where you want the pic to appear  then choose the size via the choices offered when you browse to find the file. Size is important.......
Photos for the Forum are best sized no more than 760 pixels wide and compression to around 100 Kb gives a perfectly good photo for viewing on screen: this is to allow for ease of viewing on the average monitor, without scrolling left to right.  This 760  pixels wide size  is great for landscape format photos. The need to scroll irritates readers greatly, we have found!!

A hint about posting photos: please include the name of the plant in the text of your post. Plant names will show in file names displayed beneath some picture posts, depending on how they are loaded, but such names are not picked up be the search facility.
Lastly, when you have completed your post, click on the button Post to load your post.

If you may take a long time to write any text, it is always a good idea to prepare your text beforehand, either in a word document or email to allow you to finalise that and then copy an paste your text quickly to the box.

Extra help:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=2.0

http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.0

Another version of the posting options
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Maggi Young]

Some forumists seem to have trouble getting their pictures down to the forum limit of 200kb without having to show a very small picture - this is not something that need be a problem. You will see that many photos are posted successfully on the forum at the full recommended size of a max. of 760 pixels wide.......

G:  Asarum dimidiatum (not sure you will be able to make it out in the small size pictures we have to post nowadays!)
 M: You can still post photos that are under the 200KB limit that are up to 760 pixels across- plenty big enough!   

G: I take your point but as most of my full data pictures are between 3-4MB, the hassle of getting them down below 200kb now takes a couple of hours when once I could edit and annotate the full size pictures, press edit, select all, 600 max dimension and hey presto I had the lot in less than 5 mins, now to keep below 200kb and yet have a picture that is close to the limit (otherwise you have such a small picture on the forum that its not worth looking at) you virtually have to single resize every one (or do continual batch resize to get below 200, editing in the ones that fit) is such a time consuming effort I have to wonder if it is worth it. If by chance you hit on 200kb dead on the server rejects these as too large.
Is just my point of view, others more technical may have an easier way.

C: I too used to batch resize my images and posted far more than I do now ... I now resize individually and it is a time consuming procedure that inhibits the hours I can spend putting presentations together or working in the garden.

M:  I have just batch resized 365 pictures - many were nearly 5 MB and all are now under the 200kb limit for the forum when resized to max 760 pixels wide.


Ian Y. advises that if you are not getting down to under 200Kb with resizing for the forum, using whatever programme you have, then you need to adjust the compression as well as selecting the  pixel size. Our ACDSee  programme shows us this choice as a slider for "best compression to best quality" but others will vary, of course.
(A photo  “showing” its size at 200kb will actually be a little larger when the data files are included and this will make it "over the limit" for posting)

[Maggi Young]

A reminder that if plant names/photo titles etc   are not mentioned in the text then the search facility will not recognise their existence and so they will effectively become "invisible"
Please be sure to add photo titles and plant names in the text box when you post photos so that the information contained in the forum can be fully searchable and so more useful.
It is possible for members to return to previous posts they have made to edit the text etc - simply click on the "modify" button to the upper right of  the relevant post......

[Maggi Young]

Forum photo  size advice - forum recommended size :

While a large photo  can be  glorious and can look very good when it is displayed alone on a page,  in the Forum the restrictions of the text boxes etc do mean that photos larger that 760 pixels wide will not be seen to their best advantage.
 I take this opportunity to once more urge members to re-size their photos to a maximum of 760 pixels wide  - it is possible, as is made clear by the number of very excellent photos on the forum which adhere to this ruling, to have perfectly good quality photos displaying the details and beauty of a plant while remaining within the 760 pixels wide and under 200kb limits.

 As an example I show this Crocus  photo from Steve Garvie !


[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Maggi Young]

For those who find the photo too large to see in their entirety on the screen, you can reduce them to a suitable size by use of your "mouse" -  left click on the page then hold down the "control "(Ctrl) button and roll the mouse's scrolling  wheel towards you.