If there are no images visible in this tutorial, please inform me via pm as soon as possible. Thanks.
Screen Capture:
There are a lot of free Screen Capture tools available, but IMO one of the better ones, and also freeware, is Faststone Capture. It's small GUI belies a very sophisticated program. It has a very good help file, and a very detailed tutorial which can be downloaded in PDF form.
Faststone Capture: (Last Freeware Version. Do not use the "Home" link.)
However, to get you started quickly, and save trawling through the help files, I'll outline the basic features.
Menu 1:
I have chosen to use the "To Editor" as my default. This means as soon as you capture the screenshot, it opens into the Faststone Editor, in which you can add "point to" arrows, descriptive text etc., as shown here:
Menu 2:
Here you can find links to the help file/tutorial, and an option to open any image on your PC straight into the Faststone Editor.
The next screenshot shows the different "capture" options available:
1: Capture the "active" window. (Link to definition/description of "active" window.)
2: Switch between all windows on the page.
3: Choose a capture window of any sized square or rectangle by left clicking once, drag the window to size, left click again.
4: Capture a freehand region by drag and multi-click.
5: Capture Full Screen.
6: Capture a "scrolling" window.
The PDF tutorial contains detailed explanations on each of these features, and is well worth consulting.
Please Note: Save your image as only JPG, PNG, or GIF, to save on file size and page loading. Not BMP.
Now that you've captured your image, you'll need to upload it to an Image Hosting site, and link to it by pasting a "Thumbnail Image" in your post.
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Image Hosting:
For the purpose of storing, sharing, and posting Images, you'll find a lot of "Image Hosting Sites", or "Image/File" hosting sites on the Web. Some are free to use, some are commercial, and others are a combination of both.
The idea is to upload and store your image, and simply place a small thumbnail in your post that links to that image. The thumbnail is only a fraction of the size of the original, and therefore won't use up the forums bandwidth, and will make the topic you're posting in quicker to load.
These sites all have similar, but different conditions of use, and limitations on things like the maximum size you can upload, the maximum number of images you can store,(measured by either number or total size), or how long they will host your image before deleting it.
Some of these sites are very slick, with a nice clean interface, and a nice clean onsite image that the thumbnail links to.
Some are just the opposite. Sluggish to use: Site littered with ads: Site littered with distasteful ads: Images being lost: etc. etc. You can take note of which sites other people are using, or start a new topic and ask for some suggestions.
On the majority of these sites you can register for free, which enables you to keep track of your images, or even have an on site album.
Or, if you don't register, you can upload an image, link to it, and then you normally have no further contact with that image.
As an example I'll use the one I'm using at present called "postimage.org", which has great conditions of use, is very clean. And you can use it whether you register or not. This is the best site out there IMHO.
This screenshot is fairly indicative of what a decent site looks like, although some are more cluttered.
All you would do is press the "add files" button which takes you to an upload window on your pc, choose an image, select it, and press upload. If you have a large digital image, it may take a while to upload. You can shift/select multiple images.
Once uploaded, you should see something like this: (again, it varies from site to site although this site is very slick.)
The "postimage.org" site is super user-friendly with a button to copy the correct linking code to your clipboard. You then simply right click in your post where you want the screenshot thumbnail and select "paste".
In other sites you will probably have a choice of "linking codes". What you look for is either Forum Code, or BB code, but usually the link looks like this:
[img=http://pixpipeline.com/st/4e094f6373cf.jpg]
Next, just simply right click anywhere in the link, it turns blue, and select COPY.
Come back to where you are typing your post, place the cursor on the start of the next line, right click and select PASTE.
You will now have a long line of text. To check that you have the correct linking code, go just below this window and select "Preview Post". In the preview window you should see your thumbnail. Click it, and it should take you to your hosted image.
Note that the Hosting Site automatically makes a thumbnail of your uploaded image.
That's it very basically, although you can play around with things, you can't do any harm, and if you get stuck, don't be afraid to ask.
Some other decent sites are:
PixPipeline: Nice clean site. Registration optional.
ImageBam: Nice interface, and again registration optional.
IMGBoot: Registration required, (email address). New "add title and description to image" feature. Clean site.
Imgur: Registration Optional. Flash or NoFlash version.
If any of you guys want to provide links to other good sites, I'm sure they'll be appreciated, or if you can add any relevant points I've omitted, please feel free.
I'll also include here a link to a post by one of our regulars Kroozer, which is helpful information for members who don't post often, and can therefore use the forums "uploader". If you do post often, you will soon run out of your allocated bandwidth, so bear that in mind ...
Posting Screenshots using the Forum Uploader:
Hope this helps.
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