So many people have asked me how they can take pictures and post them for others to see on the Internet that I thought that I would write a comprehensive article about it. There are several ways to do it. First of all it requires that you have your own disk space on an Internet server. This is no problem as all Internet Service Providers generally give you space and a directory name that you can use for a homepage or space to put your pictures where they can be seen by others. Even the other services like AOL, Microsoft network, or CompuServe should provide you this with your dialup package. If you cannot obtain even this much then change to a service that does!

In the first instance you can create your own homepage and insert the pictures on your page. To do this you will need to download two software programs that should be freeware from Tucows, Jumbo, or Carl Stroud's download sites. The first program is an FTP that will send your picture files up to your server or manage them on the server for you. The second program is a homepage editor that will create the HTML phrases for you and you need not even know HTML. I use Web-O-Rama HTML editor and WS-FTP to send files to the server. Also for file type conversions the Graphic Workshop is excellent. Click on each of the spinning stars to download the Windows 95/98 software.

You have to create a computer file from a picture now to proceed and this can be done in several different ways. My first pictures were made with my Minolta film camera and transferred to CDROM at my local photo store. Now they can put them onto a floppy disk which is cheaper. If you can obtain a digital camera then you can take a picture and then download it onto your computer with the wire that should be included in your camera box. The simple program to process this should be included with your digital camera.

There is one small complication and that is file types. There must be nearly a hundred different picture files but the Internet will accept only .gif or .jpg files. This means if your camera produces one type file that is not one of these then you will have to use a program to convert the picture to the appropriate file type. You can download any of the several graphic editors and they should do the job. DO NOT just rename the file to another type as this will corrupt the file and it will not work. You can view the file in the graphic editor and "save as" to the other file type.

Assuming that you now have the computer file of your picture you can now send it to your server directory with your FTP software. Having achieved this you will notice that you have a URL or an Internet address to your picture. Next get onto the Internet and type in the URL and see your picture. If you can not see your picture then either you typed the wrong URL or you do not have the file in your server directory. The FTP program should view all files that are on your server and if you don't see this file then go back and repeat the FTP process. The FTP program has two directories visible and on the left you should have your computer directory where your file resides and if the FTP process works correctly then you should view it also listed on the Server directory on the right. Please note that all filenames saved on your server should be in lower case letters.

Once you can view your picture on your Internet browser by entering the correct URL address to it's location in your directory then you can use it in many different ways. You can create a very simple homepage by using your HTML editor to create a title line for your page and then select image where you can just point to the URL to display it. The editor is smart enough to do it for you. If you want to post your picture on a forum then you must know that they use different methods. Most have a place to post your picture URL and might be titled IMAGE. Remember that you will have to use the entire URL and looking something like http://www.myserver.net/joe/pix.gif

Some of the forums do not have a place for you to enter your picture URL. If the forum has no restriction to HTML in your message then you still have another way to do it. You need to use a short line of HTML and embed it within your text message. Here is a sample created by my graphic editor.

<IMG SRC="author.gif" ALT="My picture" HEIGHT="125" WIDTH="125">. You can create this bit of HTML as easily as I did it by using the HTML editor and selecting the image button that will prompt you for a picture file name. Then it automatically creates this line for you. Please note that the name author.gif is only a example. The height and width are automatically calculated and inserted for you by the editor.

Then as you are writing your forum message you can enter this simple line in the middle of your text or at the end of your text. The finishing touch can be done with the graphic editor too and that is to center the picture on the screen. Using the editor button that looks like several horizontal lines interspersed with shorter lines you can command the center function. The completed line might look like this: <CENTER ><IMG SRC="author.gif" ALT="My picture" HEIGHT="125" WIDTH="125"> </CENTER>.

For you to place this picture HTML on another server then you have to use another instruction instead of the simple picture file name as the example shows is author.gif. Here is the longer one with an example of the URL address of your picture inserted in place of the local filename. <CENTER> <IMG SRC="http://www.myserver.net/joe/author.gif" ALT="My picture" HEIGHT="125" WIDTH="125"> </CENTER>. For you to place this picture HTML on another server then you have to use another instruction instead of the simple picture file name as the example shows is author.gif

After you have created the one line of HTML then you should take your mouse cursor and holding the button down move across the text to darken it. Then hold down the control key and press the C key at the same time. This step will copy the line into buffer memory. Then as you are typing the message you can just hold down the control key and press the V key at the same time to paste the line into the forum message text. This completes the hardest process but it can be completed in less than a minute. It just took me quite a while to write it down for you to understand.

If you still have difficulty you might use a web browser that permits you to view the HTML source of any web page which has a picture on it and then you can see for yourself how people do it. The forums that are available on this website do not offer you the simpler choice of entering your info in the IMAGE line and so you must use the longer HTML method.