It's that time again -- I think I posted this once already this season, but it's already fallen off the board, so here goes again.

There are two methods for posting pictures on the GardenWeb forums.

Method #1 - uploading to the GardenWeb server. With this method, the picture does not appear within the text of the message itself. The message contains a link to the picture. With this method, your image file must be less than 60kb, and you may only post one image per message. Instructions for using this service are located just beneath the message composing box in the section titled "Special Notes for Uploading Images".

Method #2 - posting your photos directly in the text of your message. With this method, the reader doesn't have to click a link to see your photo, the file size of your picture may be larger, and you may also place more than one picture in a post. However, GardenWeb doesn't offer hosting for images posted in this manner, so the first step is to find an image hosting site that supports "hotlinking". Hotlinking just means that when you type a certain bit of code into your message, the picture will appear automatically in the text of the message, even though it is being hosted somewhere other than at GardenWeb.

Currently, www.photobucket.com is one good source for image hosting that allows hotlinking for free accounts. There is a limit on usage, but it is quite generous, and if you make a "contribution" the limit is waived. There are other hosting sites that allow hotlinking with their paid accounts, and many of them are very reasonable. One thing to keep in mind when uploading images to an online album is that you will need to resize them first. The file size is not as important with this method as the actual pixels (although the larger the file size, the longer the picture will take to load on the viewer's screen) 72 dpi is the standard for photos to be viewed online, and a maximum width of 600-700 pixels will ensure that the viewer will not have to "scroll" side-to-side to see your picture. If you don't have image editing software installed on your computer, you can download a free image editing program with limited capability at IrfanView.

Once you have your image uploaded to a hosting site, 90% of the work is done! All that remains is to 1)obtain the url of your image; and 2)place a tiny bit of code in the Message box where you want the image to appear.

Obtaining the URL for your image: This is fairly simple if you're using Photobucket, as they provide three bits of code directly beneath the thumbnails. The one you want for the GardenWeb forum is the middle one - the "Tag" code. Double-click in the box to highlight the code, "Ctrl+C" copy the code and then "Ctrl+V" paste it into the message box. Here is what it looks like on a Photobucket Album page. Notice the code that's been highlighted in blue under the first thumbnail:

If you're working with a different image host that doesn't provide the url for you, getting it is quite simple. Find your image on the hosting site (not the thumbnail, but the full-sized image), then right-click on the image, and select "Properties":

From the box that pops up, find the url, highlight and copy it

Once you have the url, paste it into your Message box here at the forum. One last tiny step is to add the image tags which will make the image appear in your post. You will have to type these into the message box manually at the beginning and end of the url - but don't panic! It's just a couple of keystrokes. This is what your link will look like, with the bit of code you need to type in before and after the url highlighted in yellow:

That's all there is to it! You can enter as many pictures as you want into one message this way, and they will appear right along with the text of your message.