Resizing and posting pictures on the forum (Mac version)

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2014: Resizing and posting pictures on the forum (Mac version)
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, June 16, 2014 - 10:43 pm:

Some folks are computer-intimidated, or think posting pictures is too complicated and difficult, or takes too long, etc., etc. If you're like Chester A. Riley and your "head is made up", you can skip this. If you realize that it's no harder than setting your timing or adjusting your bands and would like to learn how, proceed. I'm going to go into great detail here, and post lots of pictures that may be unnecessary, but I want to cover every little thing. Once you become familiar with the following, posting a picture should take you less than a minute.

First, a little about taking pictures. Some folks suggest setting the camera to take small-file pictures that don't have to be downsized to use on the forum. I hate this idea. What if I want a good quality version of the picture later? A big file can be downsized, but a crappy little picture that begins as a small file can't be improved to make a bigger picture later. I'd rather have the best possible quality picture to begin with, then make a copy for the forum and keep the original high quality file in case I want it for something else later.

So here we go. I've shot some pictures, and we're going to post one of them on the forum.


When you download the pictures from the camera they appear as a list of files like this.


I've decided that I want to use IMG_3437, so I click on it to highlight it like this.


Then I press command and c for Copy,


and command and V for paste.


That makes the copy I'm going to resize. You can recognize it because it says "copy".


So I put my cursor on that file and double click it, and that opens this picture. Many pictures are improved by cropping, which simply means cutting off the extraneous or distracting parts. I want to crop this picture, so I put the cursor at one corner of the part I want to use, and dragged it across the screen to make the dotted line which outlines what I want to keep.


When I press command and K, everything outside the dotted line disappears and leaves this image. Now I'll resize it so I can post it on the forum.


At the top of the screen I find Tools. I click on that, and then Adjust size, and this little window appears in front of the picture.


The height of 2467 pixels is about three times bigger than what will fit on the screen, and the file size of 2.7 MB is too huge to upload, so I put the cursor next to the height, click, and drag it across the number to highlight it.


Then I change the height until the Resulting Size shows 194 KB or less. In this case a height of 601 pixels makes the file that size. I limit the height to 720 pixels, even if that makes the file way under 194 KB, because I don't want my picture too tall to fit the screen. Once I have my 194 KB or less, I click OK.


That closes the Resize window and leaves this info. Note that the size is shown as 238 KB. This doesn't matter. As long as I had 194 KB when I clicked OK, the image is good to upload no matter what it says here.


So under the message box and the user name and password boxes, I click Upload Attachment. That makes the Add Image or Attachment window appear.


I click Browse and that makes the File Upload window appear. I find the file I resized, click it to highlight it, and click Open.


The file name appears next to the Browse button and I click Upload.


The forum software assigns a number to your picture, and it appears in the message box along with your typed message. You can click Preview/Post Message to see how it will look. You can post one picture or dozens. If you post more than three, not all of them will show up in the preview, but all of them will appear in the final post. There are other little details to learn, but this is the basic procedure for posting pictures on the forum with a Mac. Now maybe somebody who knows Windows can show the basic procedure for using that system.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Erik Johnson on Monday, June 16, 2014 - 10:54 pm:

Instead of keyboard commands, I would use the mouse and just click on the image I want to edit and the "Preview" program will automatically open on your Mac. Then you can do any cropping and resizing with the mouse.

Also - instead of creating a copy of the image first, you can edit the original file and then do a file save as and rename it. This will retain the original file and the edited/cropped/resized image will have the new name. Or, you can open the original image, do a file save as under a new name and then edit it. Except for the new name, this can be done with the mouse instead of keyboard commands.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, June 16, 2014 - 11:09 pm:

I use the keyboard for copying because it takes about one second, and for cropping because it takes about half a second. Other than those two operations and typing in the height numbers, it's all mouse work.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By charley shaver on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 08:06 am:

wow! try this on the kids at wall-mart.charley


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 10:50 am:


I decided to time the procedure. I picked up my camera, went downstairs, grabbed some shackles, took their picture, and came back upstairs. That took two minutes.

Downloading the picture to the computer: 15 seconds.

Copying, cropping, and resizing: 45 seconds.

Uploading here: 15 seconds.

Like most other things, it gets easier with practice.
:-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By charley shaver on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 11:04 am:

Steve . glad it works for you, BUT RESIZING MAKES THE PIX TO SMALL TO MESS WITH. SO I WILL USE THE OTHER SITE FROM ON.thanks charley


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Clayton Swanson on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 05:15 pm:

very good steve. i have a mac, but never have claimed to be able to operate it very well. thanks


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