When participating in Internet discussion boards, you may find that you want to post pictures from time to time. Either you will want to show your online friends what you look like, share pictures of your latest project or vacation, or some other experience. Some Internet discussion boards will allow you to host the picture with them. In other words, there will be a button on the Add Post page to upload a picture from your computer, and the discussion board will house the file on the Internet so you can display it in your post. However, many boards do not have the bandwidth for this and require you to host the picture on another site and point to the picture using HTML. Once you put the correct code in your post, your picture will display.
Instructions
1. Obtain a hosting service to store your picture file on the Internet. If you have a website, you can usually host pictures on it. If not, sign up with a picture hosting service, such as Photobucket. Photobucket is free, user-friendly and provdes a lot of storage for your pictures.
2. Save your picture file as a "jpg." This is the most commonly-accepted picture file format.
3. Upload the picture to your website or the hosting service. This process varies from site to site, but there is usually a clear link or button to upload images.
4. Obtain the URL for the picture. You can get this by right-clicking on the picture and clicking on Properties. The URL will be listed. On hosting sites like Photobucket, the URL will often be given with the picture. Photobucket gives the HTML code along with the URL that you can copy and paste directly into the post on the discussion board.
5. Open a new post on the discussion board. If your hosting service gave you the HTML code with the URL, simply paste that into the post and that is all you need to do. If not, type [ I m g ] into the new post text box with no spaces between them, then the complete picture URL, including the "http://," and then [ / I m g ] with no spaces.
6. Finish your post and submit it. Your picture should appear. If a red "x" or something similar shows up instead, make sure there are no spaces in the coding or picture URL and that you have the complete, correct URL.
Tags: hosting service, discussion board, into post, picture file, your post