For Windows users especially, one way of getting an image to showcase an article on the front page is to do this:
Let's assume we are writing an article on Anthropomorphic Global Warming. To get a great graphic for an image we might Google the term: ' Anthropomorphic Global Warming ' and select IMAGES. That will give a list of images to choose from. When we find a suitable image, we right mouse click to see this menu:
Clicking ' Save image a s' provides a dialogue where you can store the image on your computer. ( It is convenient to have a single folder where you keep all of your NewsTalkers files. I have one ... it is called 'NewsTalkers'. )
Now that you have your image stored on your local drive (with a name such as AGW.jpeg) it is available for you to use the SELECT button per Perrie's video to make it the image for your article.
Why can't we just copy and paste a picture? Then post the article? Why do we have to save the image to our picture library first, and why do we have to use the click box under the Original Work box at the bottom to post an image? I have never used it before and never had a problem posting an image, and if you follow the things I do you would see that I have posted MANY hundreds of images before.
Why do we have to save the image to our picture library first, and why do we have to use the click box under the Original Work box at the bottom to post an image?
That is how the underlying platform works - and we do not have control over the platform (think of the platform as the engine and transmission). I agree that it would be much easier to, say, drag and drop an image onto a special area in the article to designate the image for the article.
Other (major) sites use the very same method of uploading from your local drive.
Turns out it wasn't as big a problem as I thought it would be. However, since the image turns out to be postage stamp size it needs to be a colourful and distinct image to work properly. I used one that just looks like a green blob and I don't think that will draw any interest.
I should really follow up my original concerned comment. I have now been using this new method and it's not as problematical as I originally thought it would be. The only real loss is that it is a slower process to save to a computer library and then seek from the library and then post an image, when it is much faster and easier to just copy and paste an image. Only that original photo needs to be posted by saving and then posting, all other photos for an article can still be copied and pasted. I was originally mostly concerned because I have been posting photo-essays with as many as 60 photos each, and the 'save & then seek & post' system is more cumbersome and on my ancient computer it sometimes is very slow.
Here is another easy method to get an image on your local drive that can then be SELECTed as the article image per Perrie's video.
If you know how to include an image in an article just go to the image in your published article (or, indeed, any published article on the site) and right click on it (Windows users) or control-click (Apple users). This will provide the pop-up I showed in my earlier comment @ 1.1
Just select ' Save Image as ... ' and the image will be downloaded to the folder of your choice on your computer.
That is it! . The image can now be attached to your article.
I take it this is not copy right infringement. That's the reason I haven't been adding images to my seeds or articles. One: I don't have many images on my desk top and Two: I don't want to get in trouble for stealing an image
Some images are marked to indicate a need for credit - most of these are also watermarked with the name of the vendor (and thus are sort of ruined). But for the major, major part when you find an image via search it is going to be public domain.
The HTML editor on NT's previous platform was pretty lame, but the one we have now is pretty GOOD!
To use HTML in almost all text-entry situations on NT (including "New Discussion", "Reply", "Update", and so on) just click on the button with the opposed arrow-heads: "<>".
In the HTML box, you can simply paste the URL (Internet address) for an image or a video, and it will appear when you publish. This is handy, because you never have the image on your computer.
A simple case, with the image centered, and having a width of 300 pixels (it's useful to be able to control the size of the image), <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="imageURL" width="300" /></p> :
You can align right or left, with variable margins on all sides. You can have the image on it's own line, or sharing a line with text. Fiddle around with the basic HTML, find what works for you .
You "can" simply copy/paste an entire seed from its source to NT, but the result isn't often very pretty. Spacing is shot all to hell, and so on. So I copy/paste the Original Article into an HTML template, and then copy/past that into an NT HTML input box. Here's my template:
I don't think NT's native formatting is the best possible (too wide, and off-center to the right), so I correct a bit. That's why I impose margins that are not symmetric. The template has: - Three lines of introduction (which will appear in the Tracker). - An image, centered, with caption and source. - A couple lines of text. - Another image. - A line of bold text, for sub-heads. - More text. These lines are duplicated as much as needed. - A footer, with the references for the Original Article.
Newstalkers is competing with other sites. Ad revenue is much of the reason NT continues and that is a function of traffic. This translates into marketing 101 - NT's front page needs to be appealing. There are quite a few things that can be done to improve the front page (incremental progress has been underway as you know). Technical enhancements help, but ultimately most of the site's appeal (and converse) comes from content provided by members (especially authors).
If you look at other websites, the trend of graphic-plus-text is clear. Nowadays, graphics (indeed quality, impressive graphics) are expected by users. NT's front page however typically shows a bunch of hats (the default icon). (This is quickly changing though.) The comparison (for newcomers) is stark and obvious and not to the advantage of NT (and thus this community). So just from a pure business perspective, it is critical that NT's front page be appealing. Very soon NT will be taking another step in technology to make the site more functional while also upping its appeal. The distinguished graphic associated with articles will become even more important.
Outside of that, graphics are good for authors since a good graphic will entice readers and can frame the content quite nicely - a picture is worth 1000 words kind of stuff. So business issues aside, modern writing should consider a good choice of article graphic to serve as the visualization of its title - visualization of its point.
To wit, short and sweet, when we (authors/seeders) supply quality graphics to characterize our articles it is good for the author and -importantly as a member of the community- it keeps NT healthy.
I am familiar with other forums that compete with NT and I am not aware of any that have a specific image associated with a seeded article on their "front page".
It also seems you are associating the need for an image with original articles, but I had to add an image to a seeded article this morning.
I can't even get NT to work on IE or Firefox .. only Chrome. I still can't figure out how to post an article, though. Why isn't there a "seed or write" link when I go to my profile?
I am not sure why it doesn't work on IE or firefox. Hummm.. I will investigate that. Can you tell me what happens when you try to do something on those platforms? How to post an article is on the video tape on this article. Watch it and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
As you know, I use Firefox since Chrome is not available to me, yet I still can post articles. I think the problem lies elsewhere - I suggest she follows my directions below.
Don't try to post from your personal page. Click on "Trackers" and on the right you will see a list of topics. Click on the one relevant to your topic and another column will open on the right, and it will at the top provide a number of options, one of which will be "New Discussion". Click that and the window opens for you to post your intended article.
Posting is still awkward (the improvement is underway). In the meantime the way to post an article or a seed is as a discussion. (One can also create blogs, but skip that for now.)
To create a new article (original or seed) you can do this:
Go to Trackers | History
The tab 'Topics' will be highlighted so pick a topic suitable for your article by clicking the title (e.g. Religion & Ethics)
You will see a list of current discussions under the topic and a new tab on the right labeled 'New Discussion'. Click it.
Now you can enter your new discussion (title, content, image, etc.)
When you Publish ('Create a Discussion' button) it will appear as a new discussion under 'Religion & Ethics'.
So this would be a good time to ask away about various ways to embed..
... or maybe to offer one.
For Windows users especially, one way of getting an image to showcase an article on the front page is to do this:
Let's assume we are writing an article on Anthropomorphic Global Warming. To get a great graphic for an image we might Google the term: ' Anthropomorphic Global Warming ' and select IMAGES. That will give a list of images to choose from. When we find a suitable image, we right mouse click to see this menu:
Clicking ' Save image a s' provides a dialogue where you can store the image on your computer. ( It is convenient to have a single folder where you keep all of your NewsTalkers files. I have one ... it is called 'NewsTalkers'. )
Now that you have your image stored on your local drive (with a name such as AGW.jpeg) it is available for you to use the SELECT button per Perrie's video to make it the image for your article.
Why can't we just copy and paste a picture? Then post the article? Why do we have to save the image to our picture library first, and why do we have to use the click box under the Original Work box at the bottom to post an image? I have never used it before and never had a problem posting an image, and if you follow the things I do you would see that I have posted MANY hundreds of images before.
By dragging it onto your desktop you can then throw it away. That is what the video is trying to show you. Did you watch the video?
That is how the underlying platform works - and we do not have control over the platform (think of the platform as the engine and transmission). I agree that it would be much easier to, say, drag and drop an image onto a special area in the article to designate the image for the article.
Other (major) sites use the very same method of uploading from your local drive.
Turns out it wasn't as big a problem as I thought it would be. However, since the image turns out to be postage stamp size it needs to be a colourful and distinct image to work properly. I used one that just looks like a green blob and I don't think that will draw any interest.
I should really follow up my original concerned comment. I have now been using this new method and it's not as problematical as I originally thought it would be. The only real loss is that it is a slower process to save to a computer library and then seek from the library and then post an image, when it is much faster and easier to just copy and paste an image. Only that original photo needs to be posted by saving and then posting, all other photos for an article can still be copied and pasted. I was originally mostly concerned because I have been posting photo-essays with as many as 60 photos each, and the 'save & then seek & post' system is more cumbersome and on my ancient computer it sometimes is very slow.
Here is another easy method to get an image on your local drive that can then be SELECTed as the article image per Perrie's video.
If you know how to include an image in an article just go to the image in your published article (or, indeed, any published article on the site) and right click on it (Windows users) or control-click (Apple users). This will provide the pop-up I showed in my earlier comment @ 1.1
Just select ' Save Image as ... ' and the image will be downloaded to the folder of your choice on your computer.
That is it!
. The image can now be attached to your article.
I take it this is not copy right infringement. That's the reason I haven't been adding images to my seeds or articles. One: I don't have many images on my desk top and Two: I don't want to get in trouble for stealing an image
Some images are marked to indicate a need for credit - most of these are also watermarked with the name of the vendor (and thus are sort of ruined). But for the major, major part when you find an image via search it is going to be public domain.
Ok, thanks, TiG!
The HTML editor on NT's previous platform was pretty lame, but the one we have now is pretty GOOD!
To use HTML in almost all text-entry situations on NT (including "New Discussion", "Reply", "Update", and so on) just click on the button with the opposed arrow-heads: "<>".
In the HTML box, you can simply paste the URL (Internet address) for an image or a video, and it will appear when you publish. This is handy, because you never have the image on your computer.
A simple case, with the image centered, and having a width of 300 pixels (it's useful to be able to control the size of the image),
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="imageURL" width="300" /></p> :
You "can" simply copy/paste an entire seed from its source to NT, but the result isn't often very pretty. Spacing is shot all to hell, and so on. So I copy/paste the Original Article into an HTML template, and then copy/past that into an NT HTML input box. Here's my template:
=============================================================
<p style="font-size: 115%; text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><em></em></p>
<p style="font-size: 115%; text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><em></em></p>
<p style="font-size: 115%; text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><em></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="imageURL" width="640"><span style="font-size: small;">ImageCaption</span><br><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>ImageSource</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="imageURL" width="640"><span style="font-size: small;">ImageCaption</span><br><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>ImageSource</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;">=============================</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><a href="articleURL"><strong>Original article</strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;">by <a href="authorURL">AuthorName</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;"><a href="sourceURL"><em>source</em></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 80px;">There may be links in the Original Article that have not been reproduced here.</p>
=============================================================
I don't think NT's native formatting is the best possible (too wide, and off-center to the right), so I correct a bit. That's why I impose margins that are not symmetric. The template has:
- Three lines of introduction (which will appear in the Tracker).
- An image, centered, with caption and source.
- A couple lines of text.
- Another image.
- A line of bold text, for sub-heads.
- More text. These lines are duplicated as much as needed.
- A footer, with the references for the Original Article.
Have fun!
Why do we have to post a picture to accompany the article?
I can offer my opinion.
Newstalkers is competing with other sites. Ad revenue is much of the reason NT continues and that is a function of traffic. This translates into marketing 101 - NT's front page needs to be appealing. There are quite a few things that can be done to improve the front page (incremental progress has been underway as you know). Technical enhancements help, but ultimately most of the site's appeal (and converse) comes from content provided by members (especially authors).
If you look at other websites, the trend of graphic-plus-text is clear. Nowadays, graphics (indeed quality, impressive graphics) are expected by users. NT's front page however typically shows a bunch of hats (the default icon). (This is quickly changing though.) The comparison (for newcomers) is stark and obvious and not to the advantage of NT (and thus this community). So just from a pure business perspective, it is critical that NT's front page be appealing. Very soon NT will be taking another step in technology to make the site more functional while also upping its appeal. The distinguished graphic associated with articles will become even more important.
Outside of that, graphics are good for authors since a good graphic will entice readers and can frame the content quite nicely - a picture is worth 1000 words kind of stuff. So business issues aside, modern writing should consider a good choice of article graphic to serve as the visualization of its title - visualization of its point.
To wit, short and sweet, when we (authors/seeders) supply quality graphics to characterize our articles it is good for the author and -importantly as a member of the community- it keeps NT healthy.
I am familiar with other forums that compete with NT and I am not aware of any that have a specific image associated with a seeded article on their "front page".
It also seems you are associating the need for an image with original articles, but I had to add an image to a seeded article this morning.
Oh well.
We'll all adjust. Surely, John, you can find a picture to publish with your articles!
I think it's a good idea. Anything to spark an interest and make things look good is a good idea!
The system is now requiring a new posting of an image, at each update.
That's maybe a bit excessive...
That would be verrry excessive. (Try it now.)
I wish I had known before I posted that GIANT pix of Al Gore the other day
Why is it necessary to post a photo with an article ?
We/they/he/she et.al., are trying to improve the look of the front page and make it look more interesting,
not a collection of the default hat avatars and seeds/articles with no art/pictures/etc.
I can't even get NT to work on IE or Firefox .. only Chrome. I still can't figure out how to post an article, though. Why isn't there a "seed or write" link when I go to my profile?
Katrix,
I am not sure why it doesn't work on IE or firefox. Hummm.. I will investigate that. Can you tell me what happens when you try to do something on those platforms? How to post an article is on the video tape on this article. Watch it and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
As you know, I use Firefox since Chrome is not available to me, yet I still can post articles. I think the problem lies elsewhere - I suggest she follows my directions below.
Don't try to post from your personal page. Click on "Trackers" and on the right you will see a list of topics. Click on the one relevant to your topic and another column will open on the right, and it will at the top provide a number of options, one of which will be "New Discussion". Click that and the window opens for you to post your intended article.
(just saw this)
Posting is still awkward (the improvement is underway). In the meantime the way to post an article or a seed is as a discussion. (One can also create blogs, but skip that for now.)
To create a new article (original or seed) you can do this:
LOL. Great minds....etc.
We were consistent.