Post by David Sechrest on Jun 10, 2008 16:35:16 GMT -5
Historic Columbus site Message Board Tips
Hello all! My next four posts will be my attempts to show you how to post text and/or pictures on this Message Board. David, Nancs, George and RER have made suggestions and I THANK them now.
I’ll try to explain and show you how I post items/pictures on this Message Board.
POSTING TEXT:
Using Your Word Processor Program For Posts
If you’re good at typing you can type right in the Message Board Posting Window. I type mine in my Word Processor Program first. By using it, I can let the machine check for spelling, grammar errors and use the dictionary. Most of you won’t need to do this, but I feel that I do! The Message Board Posting Window does have the ability to Spell Check and that Icon is shown in one of the following posts.
Highlighted Text
You’ll find that you can create Bold, Italic and Underlined text and that will also be shown. Using Nancs tip, doing this is an easy step.
Do you know how to highlight text? If not, this is how. Move your cursor to one end of the text that you want to make Bold, Italic or underlined. While holding it at that point, depress the left mouse key and while holding that mouse key down, move the cursor to the other end of the text you want to alter. If you’ve done this correctly, the Background of that text will turn blue. Release the mouse button and the blue background should remain. Next, go to the top row of Icon’s and left click on the ‘B’ for bold, the ’I ‘ ( that’s an Italic I) or the ‘U’ for underlined text. When the text is highlighted, click your choice of text style and the program will place the bold, Italic or underline codes at the correct location, ‘IF’ the text is highlighted.
Changing Text Alignment
To change the alignment of your text use the same procedure as we used to change text styles above.
Previewing Your Post
You can experiment as you will be able to Preview your work before it is Posted. If it isn’t looking the way you want, click the back Icon/button at the top left of the Posting Page Browser Screen and you can make any needed changes before doing a second Preview. When you are satisfied, click the ‘Post Reply’ Icon/button. Actually Registered Members, while logged in, can modify any of your posts at anytime. if you see something you want to change or add after you Post your work, you may Modify your post at any time after it’s on the Board. Registering is FREE and your e-mail address can be hidden from other members if you wish. The Administrators do have access to your e-mail address. Registered members also have e-mail privileges between members within the Message Board.
POSTING PICTURES
1) First of all your pictures will need to be in a form/type of file that the Message Board program at the Message Board host site can read. I use the JPG file type and that type works well.
2) The second need, is to find a storage host that will let the Message Board go to that site and download the picture that you’ve stored each time someone opens the posting you’ve made. David doesn’t have the bandwidth, or storage area, for him to offer us the option to use his site. There are several ‘FREE SITES’ on the Internet! If you have friends, who store photos on the Web, ask them which they prefer, but make sure they will allow a link that others can view . . .
I use www.imageshack.us and so far, it’s worked well for me. They have the ability for you to register. However, I choose to not register. I keep a record of what I post in my Word Processor that’s on my hard drive. I assume that if you register, you can go to their site and find the links/pictures you’ve posted. The screen example I’ll use is from this site.
3) The size of your picture should be 700 pixels or smaller. If your pictures are larger than 700 all of the text will wrap to that size and those using 15 inch monitors will need to drag the bar at the bottom of their screen to read all of the text and view all of your picture width. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a program that will let you resize your scans/pictures. The first screen of the site I use, gives you the option to set the size to 640 x 480 pixels which is a small amount smaller that the maximum size that’s best to use. Make sure you click in the box at the left of this choice.
A word of CAUTION here. If you’re scanning a small picture, going to a much larger size MAY cause your picture to lose some focus. The default setting for most scanners is 100% output. Some may let you change to 150 or 200%. It seems that my scanner interpolation works very well.
4) After opening your Picture Hosting Site, you’ll need to browse to find your saved picture. You do this the same way you attach a picture into your e-mail. A small drop down Window will open after clicking the Browse Button. This window is similar to the drop down windows in other programs. Near the top, you’ll see an Icon that looks like a ‘File Folder’ with a hooked arrow on it. The arrow will be a horizontal line that turns 90 degrees up and the point will be pointing up.
If this is the first time, you’ve clicked Browse, since opening this window you most likely will need to click that folder/arrow Icon until you see ‘My Computer’ in the list. Then you can double click or click the open button in this window to open the ‘My Computer’ list. After it open’s, locate the file where you’ve stored the picture that you want to post. Click on the file and then click the Open Button. After doing that, a copy of your file will be placed into the uploading field of the host page.
5) Now you need to adjust the size if you haven’t sized it with a program on your machine. Notice when you choose the 640 x 480 pixels that the note (for message boards) is with that size choice! Make sure the Box is checked for this option!
6) Now, it’s time to click the ‘Host It’ Button. ***This could take several seconds, depending on the speed of your connection and how busy the host server is***. I’ve had it freeze a few times and then I clicked the back Button. You can then try to resend the file. The second try has always worked well for me.
7) OK, when it returns, you’ll see about six fields with an address inside each field in the top half of this page. Near the center of the screen, on the left you’ll see a thumbnail of your picture. Five fields below the thumbnail you see the field marked, (Direct link to image) and that is the address you need for the Message Board . . . You need to highlight that address, then go to edit and click.
8) Next, move down the drop down window and click Copy. Now, you have a copy of the address in your machine storage area. ‘IF’ you don’t like to move your mouse a lot you can hold the Ctrl key down and type the ‘c’ key. Doing that is the shortcut to copy and that also will place a copy of the address into your machine storage area.
9) OPEN MESSAGE BOARD POSTING PAGE: To open the Message Board Posting Page, click on ‘reply’ in the thread that you want your post to appear. The default should have the cursor in the Posting Window but make sure it is. Your picture address should be in memory. Now is the time to paste the text/address into the Message Board Window. To Paste, go to Edit at the top left and click. Then in the drop down window, click Paste. ‘IF’ you don’t like to move your mouse a lot you can hold the Ctrl key down and type the ‘v’ key. Doing that will also Paste the information that’s in your machine storage area. You can move a line down by placing the cursor at the left end of a line and hitting the enter key the number of lines you want between the lines of text and/or pictures. The format of your post is determined by ‘YOU’. Put the address to your picture and your picture will appear first. If you’ve placed text at the top of the ‘Posting Window’ your text will appear first. If you want, paste in text, your choice of line spaces, and then a picture and more text below the picture. IT’S YOUR CHOICE! I think I’ve seen some posts telling what the picture is above the picture and the names of people in the picture at the bottom.
10) When you look at the picture of the ‘Posting Window’ page, notice the rows of Icons. The top row has the text editing Icons as described above. The second row of Icons contains the Image Icon. The fourth Icon from the left of that second row is the code needed for pictures. Above I talked about how to create Bold Text, Italic and underlined text. To post a picture is the same procedure except you click a different Icon for a picture. Highlight the address of the picture link, then click the fourth Icon from the left of the second row of Icons. The program will put the needed codes at the start and end of the address.
11) Click the ‘Preview’ button below the ‘Posting Window’ and you should then be able to view the text and picture in the ‘Preview Window’.
I know it sounds complicated, and it did take me several times before I was comfortable. I bet you’ll be a Pro after a couple of tries!
