First of all, you need an account on a photo sharing site where you can store some pictures. You can't link directly to photos in your computer so you need to have them on a 'photo hosting site'. Photobucket is the one I use the most and I think it's very, very easy, but Picasa, Kodak Gallery, and several other sites work just as well, I'm sure. These sites all have free accounts available and so you can start posting photos today without any expense. Cool, huh?

You can get to Photobucket at www.photobucket.com

So, once you have the account set up, follow the instructions for uploading pictures from your computer. You can add them one at a time, or upload several at once. (See below for some thoughts on setting up albums.) Don't worry about losing them. You are just copying them to Phtoobucket and you'll keep them on your computer. Besides being able to share them, it's also a good backup for your most precious pictures.

When you have some photos loaded, your page will look something like this:

To add a photo directly into your forum message, click once on the line under the photo that's labeled HTML Code. Then go to your message in the Florida Garden Forum (or whichever forum you want) and paste it into your text message. It will show up just as text until you hit the "Preview Message" button. Then the picture should show up. If it doesn't, check to be sure you selected the HTML Code line instead of one of the others.

You can add as many pictures to a single message as you want, but if you do more than 3 or 4 it gets very slow to open for people who use dial up.

Here's a good thing to understand: your picture doesn't really get transferred to GardenWeb. What happens is that the HTML code is telling GardenWeb (with magic computer instructions) where to go in Photobucket to find the photo AND it's also telling it to display the photo. If you delete the photo or even move it in Photobucket to a different album, GardenWeb will still have the old instructions and won't be able to find it. The link will be broken. If you edit the picture in Photobucket, making it smaller or adding a border, that will show up the next time someone looks at the message in GardenWeb. The real picture stays in Photobucket - GardenWeb just temporarily imports it each time someone opens your post. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't let me know and I'll try again!

Another good thing to know is that you can make pictures smaller in Photobucket by resizing them but you can't make them bigger again. If you go too small, you'll have to reload the photo from your computer as a new picture.

About albums: When you first set up your account, you'll see where you can "Add a new album". Since you won't want to move photos later (because you'll break the link), it's a good idea to set up a few albums right away. I suggest one for Home (house pictures), one for pets, one for garden, one for hobbies, one for vacations, etc. It's easy to add them at any time so they don't need to all be set up right away, but a couple are a good idea. I even have one called Miscellaneous for any pictures that don't seem to fit anywhere else!

Hope this helps!
Kate

Marcia

Marcia, what we meant about the html code was that you should be able to post photos from any hosting site as long as you have the html code. Photobucket provides it but not all sites do.
Here's the code, with a space added after the first angle bracket and in front of the last one. They are just there so the real code doesn't disappear. Where it says 'whatever.com' insert the url address of your photo. He'll need all the other text and the quote marks too.

< img src="http://whatever.com" >

If all else fails, just go with photobucket or picasa and let the magic work.

Kate

Marcia

My original reading of his post here was that he had copied the HTML code section AND added a separate image source tag, and that's what I was confused about. I didn't know if I had misinterpreted what he was saying or not.

Happy he has it worked out now, though. And I think your instructions above are great, especially with the screen captures to illustrate what it looks like on Photobucket. Nice job! (Yeah, I confess, I never read them before because I already knew how to do it. Smack me up beside the head when you see me again.)

Marcia

Marcia

Marcia

Trying again...

Toodles,
M

Kate

Then from photobucket, you should be able to go anywhere on your computer or to an on-line account and select pictures to upload. I'm not really sure what you mean by "... pictures in my e-mail account", but try this: when you are on an album page, ready to upload pictures, look just to the right of the upload box on the screen. There's another box there that gives you some options, such as upload from computer, upload from a mobile phone, or upload from email. Select email and then click on "choose files". That should work. If it doesn't, let us know! Feel free to email me directly is you have a specific question.

Kate

Let me know if it doesn't work!

Kate

"Once you have the account you'll see how easy it is to upload your photos to photobucket"
Sorry,I am being very thick!
I cannot see how to get my photos onto photobucket.
Can anyone tell me?
Thank-you. Daisy

Daisy, first of all, have you set up an account (joined)?
Then, are you logged in to that account? The place to enter your user name and password are near the top right corner of the page.
Once you log in, if you are on the Photobucket main page instead of your 'albums' page, then look at the menu bar at the top of the website - I think it's deep blue in color. Near the left on that menu bar is "my albums" with a little down arrow on it. Put your mouse cursor there and choose "albums and upload". That will take you to the page where you can upload pictures from your computer.

Please let me know if that works.

Kate

Daisy, I forgot to mention this in my reply to you. My Grandfather came to America from Greece in 1898, so it's particularly delightful to use the GardenWeb to 'speak' to you in Crete! What a small and wonderful world!

Kate

Here's the code, with a space added after the first angle bracket and in front of the last one. They are just there so the real code doesn't disappear. Where it says 'whatever.com' insert the url address of your photo. You'll need all the other text and the quote marks too.
< img src="http://whatever.com" >

If you don't see the lines of code under each picture you either aren't logged in to your account or you have it set up not to show the codes. Click on "Account Options" near the top of the page, then under "album settings" click on "link options". A little window will pop up with some choices; be sure the tiny box to the left of "HTML..." is checked. Once you save that option, the HTML code line should show up under each of your pictures. Right click on that line and 'copy' it. Then you can paste it into your text messages.

If that doesn't work I'm not sure what else to try but let me know and we'll figure out something.

Kate

I went to the 'test forum' and someone is there spamming it like crazy so I don't want to try to do it there.. hope noone minds if I try it here!

*fingers crossed...lol

again, thanks for the info!

~Wendy

Kate

[IMG]http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/Surface_Tension/2012/201 2 garden/IMG_2364.jpg[/IMG]

You may need to change your Photobucket settings to show HTML links to see the proper code:

Another way would be to just use the direct image link in this simple HTML code:

<img src="URL_of_the_Image">

For your image, try posting this:

<img src="http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/Surface_Tension/2012/201 2 garden/IMG_2364.jpg">

Good luck.

Edit: Actually, I see in my screenshot that Photobucket is calling the BBC code "IMG code", but that's what it is though, Bulletin Board Code.