Post edited 8:48 AM – March 15, 2010 by Tyler

Jim Rose said:Trying to put some pics on, and there is not a browse button when I open the insert image window.  Am I doing something wrong? 

Hi Jim, sorry for the late reply. Inserting images can be a little confusing at first, mostly because of the way that the forum stores uploaded images. Each forum member has his or her own folder for images and media. This keeps everything more organized. To upload an image (or multiple images) you first need to create a folder to store those images in, then you upload them to that folder.

Creating a Folder: Let's say I wanted to upload a couple of images of a Tap Handle I recently created. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Create a new folder called "Tap Handle". To do this, Click on the Insert/Edit Image icon (it looks like a tree) to bring up the Insert/Edit Image dialogue box. Then click the "Browse" icon.

Step 2: Create your "Tap Handle" folder by clicking on the "Folders" tab and typing the name of the new folder in the text box. You can see that I already have 2 subfolders, "Die Holder" and a folder for this tutorial called "How2 Upload Images".

Step 3: Now you should see that you have a new folder listed under your username. Click on the "Upload" tab to upload your pictures to your new folder.

Step 4: You should now be in the "Upload" tab. Make sure you choose the correct folder from the "Current Folder" dropdown (for my example, it should say "Tap Handle" and not "tyoungblood". Then click "Browse" to upload your pictures to your new folder.

Step 5: Select the image (or multiple images) from your hard drive and click the "Upload" button. Now you should should see this window: Click on the "Browse" tab so see the newly uploaded image(s).

Step 6: Now you should be looking at the "Browse" tab. Click on the image you want to insert into your forum post. NOTE: if you don't see any images, double check to see if you're looking in the right folder (your "Current Folder" is shown in the upper right corner).

Once you click on the image it should be automatically inserted into your post.

That's it!

And yes, I realize that it's a lot more cumbersome than some forums might be, but by allowing forum members to store everything in their own folders, the forum will remain more organized and load faster. So in the long run, it's a good thing.

One last thing, if you image is too big you can resize it by clicking on the "Edit" tab within the image browser.

Once in the "Edit" tab, navigate to the appropriate folder (in this example I'm in the "How2 Upload Images folder), choose "Resize" from the list of actions, enter a new width into the "Resize" text box (500 is typically good), then click "Resize Files". Once you've resized the image, you need to delete the larger image from your post and re-insert the smaller image using the "Insert/Edit Image" button.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

Hi Alexander, you did indeed discover a glitch. I think I've fixed it. Can you give it another try to see if you can post images now? Thanks!

Sorry for the glitch, but thanks for noticing and reporting it!

Excellent Alexander, looking forward to the post.

Hi Titaniumboy, I just got home. Sorry it has taken a few hours to get back to you. I definately don't want posting pictures to be an issue. 

Alex is right, you can adjust the size of an image from within Preview, which is a program I'm sure you're familiar with on the mac (all macs come with it). I'm not familiar with Bridge, I just use Preview to adjust my images. PC users can do the same thing with Paint.

Once you've opened your image up in Preview go to Tools → Adjust Size and then change the resolution to 72 pixels/inch. The average computer monitor can only display up to 72 pixels/inch in quality so anything over that amount just takes up extra space. However, if you want your image to be of decent quality when you print it out you can change the pixels/inch to about 300 – which is the average printer quality of most inkjet printers.

Down at the bottom of the Image Dimensions box you'll see the "Resulting Size". As long as that size is small enough (under the 500kb limit) you should be good to go. Don't worry about changing the size of the image (ie if it's a 3x5" image, don't worry about it, the sofware will scale it down to about 300 pixels wide for the forum. Then if people click on the 300px picture it will expand to the full 3x5" size).

Let me know if you're still stuck. And thanks in advance for sharing your first pic(s)!