Tutorial for hosting and posting Avatar and Pictures

[michaels artic frost]

Okay, I've been seeing lots of members with different avatar sizes.

I've used several different software to resize pics to avatar size and this is probably the best thing I came across. So I just wanted to share it with everyone else.

Here's an easy way to get a nice size (100 x 75) avatar at about 3Kb in size.





Just for example, I'll use mine.

Tutorial for an appropriate size avatar for http://www.Solaraguy.org

Follow the steps below.

1. If you don't have an imagestation account already. Go to http://www.imagestation.com and create an account, quick, easy and best of all, it's FREE!

2. Once you've got your account created. Upload some pictures from you computer.

3. Select to view the album (You should be in the Index of the album now)

4. Here you will see all the images in a thumbnail view.

5. Right click on an image that you'd like to make your AVATAR and select "Save picture as" and be sure to save it as a jpeg file (The extension of the file is ".jpg") Save it to your computer (Desktop preferred for easy access.)

6. Once you've saved the .jpg file, select to upload that same file that you just saved to your computer/desktop.

7. Now, select to view the album again (You should be in the Index of the album again)

8. You will notice that the file you uploaded is about 3Kb compared to the others that much bigger in size.

9. Right click on the thumbnail that's 3Kb in size and select properties.

10. Copy the Address (URL): (Mine is http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... .thumb.jpg) You will need to remove the ".thumb.jpg" extension.

So it should look like this - http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid190/p9e5f77d46369e4c09d80eb7a9c94b888/f1eb08a1.jpg

11. Now go to http://www.solaraguy.org and select Profile at the top to edit your profile.

12. At the very bottom of the page, You will see "Link to off-site Avatar:
Enter the URL of the location containing the Avatar image you wish to link to."
Paste the URL address there - http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid190/p9e5f77d46369e4c09d80eb7a9c94b888/f1eb08a1.jpg

13. If you already have another avatar showing, check the "Delete image" option and now click on submit.

14. This should upload an appropriate size avatar of (Dimension 100 x 75 pixel)


Below is just a summary for posting pics in your posts. Pretty much the same process as above.

1. Just right click on the pic and select PROPERTIES

2. Then copy the ADDRESS (URL) and if you want to post a pic in Solaraguy

3. Just paste the ADDRESS (URL) and highlight the ADDRESS (URL)

4. And click on the IMG icon in the Solaraguy post when you're writing a post.


I hope this helps. Enjoy!
Michael T.

BTW, I learned this trick by slingshot's avatar. I found out where he was hosting his avatar image and tried this out for myself and this was how this tutorial came about.

I know I did the majority of the work by typing this up, but the idea had to start from somewhere.

Thank you slingshot!

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

Here's a set of instructions with Photobucket, which is much more simple and intuitive:

TO ADD FILES TO PHOTOBUCKET:
1. Go to http://www.photobucket.com. If you have an activated and usable account, awesome; skip to Step 2. If you don't, it's a free registration and follow Step 1.1.
1.1. If you haven't done it already, confirm and activate your account if it is a new account by checking the e-mail that you provided with Photobucket and click on the link.

2. Now, try uploading a picture by hitting "Browse..." in the "Image Upload" section, but just to save you time, preferably one you're going to use.

3. Right now, if you scroll down a bit, you will notice a shrunken preview (thumbnail), most likely with 3 pre-filled text boxes with a bunch of code in it; URL Link, HTML Tag and IMG Code. If you see it, go to Step 4. If not, go to Step 3.1.
3.1 In the upper right corner, hit "account options", then hit "Album Settings (edit my album settings)" make sure that the check mark next to "Display IMG" and "Display URL" is selected. "Tag" is optional, but doesn't hurt anything to turn on either (who knows, you might use it for eBay or something). After that, hit "Save" on the corner.

4. Now, you have a usable picture! If you have more than 1 picture to upload at the same time, click "Add more images" that gives you 5 upload slots, or even "Add even more images" afterwards to add 6-20 more, but you don't HAVE to use all 5 or 20. If you want to keep your file name private (e.g. if the file is JoeSmith and you don't want people knowing your name), click "Uploading options" and check "Scramble filenames so that nobody can guess your links.", and it will rename it to a set of random characters, like A6B9GSXR6 or so.

TO POST THE PICTURES IN SOLARAGUY:
(NOTE: Windows instructions will be typed normally, Mac will be in brackets.)

1. Open 2 internet windows; Log into SolaraGuy and start/reply to a post as usual in one window, then open Photobucket in the other.

2. In Photobucket, look for the photo you want, then highlight all the information in "IMG Code". TIP: All you need to do is click once in the field and it will usually automatically highlight everything for you and automatically copy it to your system clipboard (confirmed by a small yellow box that briefly pops up saying "copied". If it doesn't, right/[Option]-click it and hit "Copy" (or similar) in the pop-up menu, or hold down Ctrl/[Apple] and hit "C", then release both keys simultaneously.

3. Switch to SolaraGuy, and then insert the picture where you want it by making sure the cursor is where you want it in line with the text and hit Ctrl/[Apple] + V, or right/[Option] click where you want it to be and hit "Paste" in the pop-up menu. For example:

Code: Select all

Here's a cheap MSPaint picture of a fish with a flamethrower:
[IMG]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b26/edwardw818/Flam3thr0z0r.jpg[/IMG]

Which turns out like:
Here's a cheap MSPaint picture of a fish with a flamethrower:


4. Continue as usual like a normal post, and you got it!



DIRECT LINK:
If you have something that is either graphic or unsuitable for work/school, the following is the way to just provide a direct link that the user has to click on to access (but it's a harmless shot of my car, see?):


To do it, follow the steps in "TO POST THE PICTURES IN SOLARAGUY" above, EXCEPT instead of "IMG Code", copy from "URL Link". So then you get:

Code: Select all

Hottie... Not Safe For Work.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b26/edwardw818/71366b3e.jpg

Which will turn out like:
Hottie... Not Safe For Work.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b26/e ... 366b3e.jpg

So there you have it!