Defensive Carry Picture Posting Help
(Note - over time board software posting methods can change.  This may well hopefully continue to be a useful guide.)

Now and again we get asked by new members, how to post pictures. This is a brief rundown of the options and methods available, of which there are basically three. First there is the remote hosted picture option, then the DefensiveCarry Gallery storage method (sorry - right now gallery facilities have changed and so this page probably not entirely helpful until updated).and finally, the attachment made to a posted message. (If anyone wants some deeper information on digital imaging and allied subjects, do go look at my IMAGE MATTERS site which covers quite a lot of ground and was originally done for another forum.)

Let's look at these individually........... sorry page is a bit long ..........


Remotely Hosted Images
This requires that your picture is hosted on a web server, somewhere. If you have your own server to use then that's easy but otherwise you have the option of placing images on one of several free picture hosting servers around. Imageshack is one and Photobucket is another. If however you search Google with "free picture hosting" you'll find a lot of others. There is always a ''catch'' which is usually putting up with ad's!!

NOTE - Try and keep images within a sensible size physically and regarding actual file size! Free hosts have a storage limit and it helps you to store more pic's if they are not huge. Reasonable sizing also means faster downloads for others. If you have no image software to make resizing easy - go to IrfanView.com where you can grab a very excellent and free small application. I regard 640x480 pixels as a good guide for picture sizes and with enough JPG compression this need be only 60k - 100k max in file size. Be kind to the poor folks who have to endure dial up!!!

Once a picture is stored somewhere it will have a unique URL (address) ....... you need to know this because that will be placed inside image tags. This can be easily done by copying and pasting the picture URL into the small window that appears when you click on the image icon above the reply window - this will be pointed out in a pic further down. It is the fouth from right and looks like a mountain and sun on yellow background. Alternatively, just enclose the pic' URL with image tags directly - so it'll look like this -

[img]http://www.someimagehost.com/yourpicfolder/yourpicture.jpg[/img].

It is worth noting that you might well use this method to 'borrow' a picture from say, a gun manufacturer's site - providing they allow 'hot linking', not all do. If you right click on the picture in the parent site and view 'properties' - that will give you the full URL which you can copy and then paste into your post message inside the [IMG] tags.


CombatCarry Gallery
There are new gallery options now - so this is probably obsolete - if time permits we will try and bring this up to date.

The Gallery is an add-on feature and be aware that when we upgrade the main VBulletin software that can become inaccessible, either temporarily or worse! So always keep copies just in case.

To access the Gallery follow this link and take a look around. You'll see a link upper right "Upload", under the main links bar which you use to upload a picture from your computer. Having clicked on that you should see the content shown below .......

You have options for up to six pic's at one time - so ''browse'' to the locations on your own computer for each one as required. It is best I think to do one at a time and then you can add an image title and any descriptive info as well in the other two windows if you wish - as for the category drop down, select "Member Picture Post" category so as to keep pic's ordered by member name to assist indexing. Not shown on this pic' above but you have an option to add keywords which can help others searching, so make and model of gun might be useful. Below yet is a ''submit'' button when you are done.

Uploading a picture to the gallery



Now - how do you use a picture to display it in a post? Well, if you navigate to the pic' you wish to use and click on the thumbnail - the main image will open and below it, you will see a details section as in this example. If you select and then copy the info' in the ''BB Image Code'' field window, you can paste that diectly in with your post. This was for one of Bud White's pictures.

Info' displayed under a full size gallery picture


CombatCarry - Attachments
When you make a post, there is always the option to place a picture (or one of several other file types allowable that are listed). Here we are concentrating on pictures which is the most usual use made of attachments. Below is part of your advanced message window - note the icons, where the fourth from right is for adding [IMG] tags to an image URL, and next to that the 'quote' icon.

Part of the advanced message reply window



So - you have typed out your post message and are ready to attach a file or files ........ so scroll down further and find what is shown below in the next image ........... notice the ''Attach Files'' section and, click on the ''Manage Attachments" button.

The area beneath the advanced reply window



The next event will be a smaller new window with content including what you see below (note the list of allowable file types and sizes). Use one or more of the three field windows to browse on your own computer to where your picture files are located - and you'll see contents show similar to the example. If that is finished then simply hit the ''Upload'' button and wait - until the window refreshes and shows your file/filenames listed. You may then close this window and proceed if done to submit your post.

The ''Upload file from a URL'' is there in case you want to attach a picture residing on another web site, providing that site permits access to its pictures, or even one you have free-hosted somewhere if you choose this approach.

Content of part of the add attachment sub-window



Finally, once your new post has been submitted, you should see beneath the text content, a new section as shown below. Once anyone clicks on the thumbnail image it will be displayed for them in a new window.

How your attachment will show below your post

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