Uploading Photos for your Forum Posts

There are two principal ways that photos are uploaded and displayed in Posts on the Forum:

1. Forum Attachment Manager -- allows you to upload thumbnail images (currently those are only thumbnails, but we may change that in the near term).

2. The preferred way is to load fuller size images -- roughly 600 x 600 pixels so readers can see them more easily. In order to display an photo on this forum -- it needs to be in the form of an URL -- so it looks like this:
a. http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum...tachmentid=443 or
b. http://living-las-vegas.com/wp-conte...sEye-MS-29.jpg

** If your photo is already in the form of a URL, (it's been uploaded to another site or photo sharing service) -- like example "b" you can load it in your Forum post by:

1). Clicking on the "picture frame" tool (above)
2) Pasting in the URL from the photo
3) Click OK and it will load your photo by placing BB code around it.


*** If your photos are still on your computer -- you can create photo albums in your member profile and upload hundreds of images. ***Due to a programming issue, if you use the albums in your Forum member profile, you can only upload a single image at a time. If you use the RTA PhotoShare option, you can upload several images to your RTA PhotoShare albums and edit them much easier. **** Keep reading, this really does get easier.... We still support the original forum photo albums, but RTA PhotoShare is much more powerful and we hope you try it.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE KIND OF PHOTO ALBUMS, YOU CAN CREATE AS PART OF THE RTA PhotoShare! Scroll down to the next post for some handy-dandy instructions for creating your own RTA PhotoShare photo albums.

Once they are there.... (and if you are on the Forum)

1) Click on "RTA PhotoShare" found in the Green Navigation bar on every page of this site.
2) Click on a photo – it creates both the BB code and URL of that image
3) Back to the Forum Post – [IMG]if you select the BB code [/IMG]– you don’t need the photo insertion tool
a. Just paste the photo code in your post and you’re done.
4) If you are using the RTA PhotoShare -- the medium size image is the one we suggest using on the Forum and again you can just grab the code and stick in your post without any need for using the insertion tool. {Reminder if you're a RTA Contributing Writer and using the RTA PhotoShare to upload images for any of the articles on RTA -- you still need to use the Direct Link URL!}

----------4a) Paste the URL (if your photo is in the URL format)


Mark

Don't let the length of this post scare you.... I've listed 12 steps, for your first time, but I can guarantee that after you've done this once.... it will be easy and you'll have no problems...

Here is how I get my photos on the RTA Website:

Before uploading any photo, you can edit it for photo quality or you can upload images as they are. It can be helpful to put all of the images you want to upload in one folder on your machine. Once you have all photos ready to upload, go to any page on the RTA site.

1. Click on the PhotoShare tab and then log in. (This PhotoShare tab is on every single page on the RTA site).
***If you're already logged in to the site with your username, the site will log you in automatically on the PhotoShare program.

2. Click on the smaller Upload Photos tab below the PhotoShare tab. That brings you to the main upload screen.

3. Choose a category for your photos, or select Members Galleries, which is already in the window.

4. Now choose an album from one you have created–We’ll get to creating albums shortly–or skip to the next window if you want your photos to go straight to the Members Galleries.

5. Be sure to create a default title (caption) for your images -- something like April 19th -- Death Valley -- You'll be able to change the caption for each photo in a later screen.

6. The remainder of the fill-in boxes are optional, but you may enter keywords, general titles, and descriptions. You can change these after upload and before you process the photos. (See #11 below for more information). Generally it is a very good idea to fill in all of these fields -- It makes viewing the photos more interesting for your viewers, family and friends.

7. Click on the Select Files for Upload button and locate the folder containing the photos you want to upload.

8. Navigate to the folder with your images. You can select them individually or you can select several at a time by highlighting a group of them. (The upload system uses Flash to upload multiple images and so you'll probably need to have Flash enabled on your machine to do this). If you don't have Flash enabled on your machine, you can still select and upload individual photos -- but Flash is free we recommend getting it. Here's a link to download Flash if you need it.

9. Click the Upload/Submit button at the bottom of the screen. You can continue to select and upload as many as you like before performing the next step. Try to limit it to 5-6 if you have a lot to upload. It is easier to edit just one screen at a time. (But it's really not a big deal to upload 20+ images at a time)
--------9a. You'll see a bar graph as the images are moved to the RTA server and a message " # files uploaded"

10. Click on the Upload/Submit button, your photos will appear as thumbnails with editing features to the right side. You also have a button next to the thumbnail to un-check if you decide you didn’t want that photo after all.

11. Use the boxes at the right side to title and describe your photo. "Title" is the caption that will apply to each of the photos. "Description" is where you'd list the location of the photo, what camera settings you used, or any other information you'd like your viewers to see. Do the edits for all photos that you uploaded.

12. When finished editing title and text, click on the Process button at the bottom of the screen and your photos will all be uploaded to the RTA Website. If you put them into one of your albums, you may add other photos to that album later, or you can move photos around.

If you're using PhotoShare to upload photos to your Custom Places on the RTA Map Center
a. Click on any of the images you've uploaded to the PhotoShare
b. At the bottom of the page you'll see a "Photo Details" section, where an URL for the photo has been created for a variety of uses.
c. You can (and should) ignore the four top link choices (linked thumbnail, Linked Medium, Medium Image & html code)
d. Copy the link listed under "Direct Link" (put your cursor there and copy)
e. Open the Custom Place Information Box
f. Click on the picture frame icon (looks like a tree)
g. Paste the PhotoShare link into the Image URL box
h. type in a image description (this is the alt-text)
i. Leave Alignment alone
J. Enter one of the following variables into Dimensions
---- 200
---- x 300
k. Click insert ! -- You're done.

Creating an album is quite easy.
1. About midway down the PhotoShare screen is a sub-menu with My Albums in it.
2. Click on it and it will bring up a screen with all of your photo albums.
3. Click on Create a New Album and follow the steps to title and create an album.
4. All of your albums will appear on the upload screen when you select the arrow in the Category box.

To move or delete a photo you previously uploaded:
1. Click on the photo thumbnail to display it full size on your screen.
2. In the upper right (green) area above the photo is a Photo Options tab. Click on it.
3. Click on the Edit Photo tab. That will display the photo as a thumbnail with edit features under it.
4. To move the photo, select the arrow on the Change Category box and select a different album.
5. To delete the photo, check the box at the bottom of the screen.
6. You may also edit the title/keywords/description of the photo on this screen.
7. This particular software package does not include options to enable members to sort the photos in an order of their choosing. At some point, we might add this capability to the the RTA PhotoShare. As is now configured, every time a new viewer looks at the photos in either your albums or in the member galleries, they can choose their own sort order. We're looking at a way for the RTA member to set the display order of their photos, so that the photos are displayed in the sort order that the RA member would like them.
8. Click on Submit Changes button at the bottom.

I hope this helps you to upload your photos in the new program. It is not difficult and enables easier and quicker locating later. What is neat about this is that whenever you select that photo you get the photo with title and description and then several options to link to it in an article or thread.

Harry

Harry,

Thanks for the tutorial. I edited your steps a bit (you might want to check and make sure you still agree with the procedure).

The moving photos procedure is still clunkier than I'd prefer -- but your instructions do work and hope everyone finds the steps helpful.

Mark

One problem I've encountered more than once (and therefore worth sharing) occurs when uploading multiple images at once.

Quite often, on clicking the Upload/Submit button, the system will think about things for a little while and then decide that one of the photos can't be processed for some reason or another (the screen goes gray and there's a message along the lines of "PhotoShare is unable to upload image [title]".

In order to continue with the upload, you need to click the "Upload photos" link in the black toolbar and this will take you back to the master upload page where you can re-start the process (without the problem photo). The remaining images will still be there, waiting for you to reinitiate the upload, but - and this is where I've hit problems before - your settings (destination album, title, keywords etc) will have disappeared.

If you forget to re-select your preferred album or add the necessary info, you can still do so on the next page you see but each photo will need managing individually.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for this bug notice -- I've not seen this myself yet.

Do you have any idea what causes a photo to be marked as the following?

Quote:

---

the photos can't be processed for some reason or another

---

I don't even know what to start looking at (to resolve this). How often does this happen to you? (Once is too many, but...)

Thanks,

Mark

... not once, but twice, and when attempting to upload a single image. The image was 6.1MB and reducing it to 2.5MB (approx) did the trick but I've had it occur with smaller files too.

Don't know if this helps but the sequence I follow is to click the rectangular "Select Files for Upload" button to the left. I then see a progress bar as the file(s) upload(s). Once this is done, I still see the lozenge-shaped "Upload/Submit" button.

Press this and I get the gray progress screen, all as follows ...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/...71366d5791.jpg

And when it failed, the precise fail message was: (due to security issues -- removed the file path)

It's at this point that you have to start again. Hope this helps Mark (as I mentioned, I'm now away until Saturday).

Peter

Peter,

Been battling all sorts of web gremlins the last 24 hours -- thanks for the screen shots and sorry you're having the problems.

Mark

Peter:

A 6.1 mb image is pretty darn big - I'd recommend you reduce it down to a decent final size (maybe 1024x768?) and save it in some kind of compressed format such as .jpg before uploading it - rather than try to rely on the forum software to do that for you.

A frequent question has to do with the ability to sort photos already in an album.

To do that, click on one of your albums -- you can only edit your own albums (you need to click on "My Albums")

And then you'll see a bunch of options in the links to the right of the thumbnail -- one of them is "Sort Photos"

[Upload Photos]
[Delete] [Edit] [Sort Photos]

Click that and you'll be afforded a way to reorder the photos in your album.

Squidly....

thanks for the tutorial!

And you if you wanted to add a RTA custom map to your post, click here for the tutorial.

When we purchased the software to enable the RTA PhotoShare product there were a couple of configuration choices available to us. For a series of site administrative reasons, we did not enable the capability for RTA members to sort the order of their photos in their albums or set the sort order in a way so that every viewer sees the same line-up. And further every viewer can resort the photos in the category for viewing purposes.

We're now reviewing the procedure to enable such a thing. If that capability is added, I'll post that update here.

Mark

On which icon do I click to move a photo from my album in photoshare, onto a thread in forum?

Lifey

Edit: Got it now!!

a. Click on any of the images you've uploaded to the PhotoShare
b. At the bottom of the page you'll see a "Photo Details" section, where an URL for the photo has been created for a variety of uses.
c. You can (and should) ignore the four top link choices (linked thumbnail, Linked Medium, Medium Image & html code)
d. Copy the link listed under "Direct Link" (put your cursor there and copy)
e. Click on the picture frame icon above the posting/editing box (looks like a tree)
f. Paste the PhotoShare link into the Image URL box

I am still scratching my head here. I've added four photos to a gallery. I go to home and see them in "most recent" I go to "Member Galleries" I can see them there.

However, I know that I have got two more albums. I go to "My profile" and I can see those albums, but not the recent one.

I know that I must be missing something obvious, but I cannot figure it out.

There are two different photo sharing programs active on RTA. One is "housed" here on the forum and one is the RTA PhotoShare program

In the RTA PhotoShare, I see these photos.

But you also have two more albums in the Great American RoadTrip Forum Photo Library, found from your Forum profile here.
Road Trip 2009 Death Valley
Road Trip 2009 Yosemite

Is this all of them?

And... very nice collection of photos!

Thanks,

Mark

Thanks. I was trying out uploads today, in preparation for this year's trip, which should produce some crackers. Is there any way of merging the two sets? If not, should i go with RTA photo share?

I would like to do an account of my trip combined with photos, so I want it to be as easy as possible.

There are advantages of both forms of photo sharing. The program that is connected to this Forum has a much nicer interface and the albums look much nicer. Plus, it's much easier to upload multiple images at one time.

The RTA PhotoShare automatically creates nice links for publishing the photos on the forum -- When we created the RTA PhotoShare the Forum albums were TERRIBLE and so we spent the $$ to purchase the PhotoShare. Now the forum version is probably a much nicer version than the RTA PhotoShare for all uses, including publishing trip reports on this forum. Some of the active RTA members use both, but most of us, use the PhotoShare, because we're most familiar with it.

I think you should use the one that you like more.

And, no... there is no way to combine the two sets of data -- they use different software and databases. (Sorry about that). I wish we could migrate them for you, but.... really can't do that.


Mark

How do I delete photos uploaded? They are the wrong ones, and I do not want them on the site.

How do I move photos, which I accidently put in the gallery, but want to go into one of my albums?

Lifey

Lifey,

If the photos you want to move and/or delete are on the RTA PhotoShare:
1) Go to the photo and the top right side of the image display you'll see a link for "Photo Options"
2) This is a pull-down menu and one of the options is for Move/Delete photo.

If the photos are in a RTA Album (on the Forum) you can edit the photos, make them private, or delete them and/or delete the entire album. Just go to your Forum profile. (the easiest way to do that is to click on your username, and then click on "View Profile"

Does this help?

(And if necessary, I can edit the database and remove them for you...)

Mark

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark Sedenquist

Does this help?

---

Yes it does, Thank you!

Lifey

Ok I have pics downloaded but when I try to copy the 'direct link" i can't ... what am i doing wrong? thanks

If you copy and paste the link which says Medium Image, into your posts, that will work. At least it does for me.

You need to copy and paste by doing the ctrl c and ctrl v.

Lifey

I am sure it must have been mentioned at some time, but blowed if I can find it.

How does one delete an image after uploading it? I seem not to be able to find a delete button.

Lifey

Edit: After almost an hour of not being able to find it, I went into edit image and saw the delete box.

Should be more obvious.

Twice recently I have tried to upload photos to my album. One time I managed to upload a few (out of the two dozen or so I had ready), in a period of more than five hours. The other time I managed to get one uploaded in 90 minutes.

After the blue line has travelled all the way I get a red box with a message saying Upload Error 500.

Is this a problem with my 'fixed' computer? Is it to do with public wifi? Or is it my lack of knowledge of what I am doing? It is most frustrating. I have photos I'd like to put in my field report, but seem not be able to get them uploaded.

Lifey

While traveling and uploading photos I have found public WiFi, including most motel WiFi to be very frustrating. I have experienced exceedingly long upload time or error messages, as you have. McDonalds seem to have a 'stronger' signal, sometimes. I have also found that the amount you pay for a motel/hotel room does not translate into signal strength.

Many times I have resorted to using my phone system as a hotspot for my tablet, which eats up data and can add cost.

Good luck,
-Pat

These days, all I use when I'm on the road is my phone acting as a Hotspot. I've never seen much appreciable use of the data plan I use. I never use the free Wi-Fi -- I'd rather have the slightly more secure cell phone access!

Mark

Well, until I get back to Boston, I do not have a choice. My dumb phone won't do any of that.

Lifey

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lifemagician

After the blue line has travelled all the way I get a red box with a message saying Upload Error 500.

---

Yikes! I am sorry this has been so frustrating for you. Upload Error 500 is normally a server error -- I've not checked the logs yet -- can you tell me what day you did this -- there are more than 100,000 entries per day in the log files -- so it helps if I know where to start looking.

Off the top of my head -- I bet this is a result of trying to upload an image that is too big -- if the file is too large and you are using public WiFi -- it's possible that the server you are using truncates the file and it returns as a 500 server error.

And I agree that this is not a good situation.

Lordy, waiting that long to upload images sounds like the bad ole days of the Web. Do you know the file size you were uploading? (I really doubt it has anything to do with your computer.

Mark

You need to edit your pics to reduce the file size before uploading. The full size files out of most cameras these days are too big. Irfanview does this easily, Image - Resize/Resample. Bring it down to no larger than 1024x768.

All my photos are always the same size, I never change it. The camera says 1024 x 768.

I'll just have to paint word pictures.... despite all the lovely pics I have......

and like to show off!

No mark, I now have no idea which days these were. Not exactly something I wanted to remember.

Lifey

Email me one of the pics so I can check it out for you, please.

Thanks for offering, but today, at this library, where I specifically asked if there was any restriction on uploading photos to the web, it seems to be working. Three down, lots more to follow.

Mark, found a bit of paper on which I had recorded, on 2nd August, my sheer frustration trying to upload. So that was one date. Have no idea of the other, nor of the time of day on that date.

Lifey