How to Post a picture on ZCS home page

How to Post a picture on ZCS home page

Mouse over the "Gallery" tab, then a menu displays. Go to the last menu option "Add Photos / Categories".

A new screen displays, labeled "Gallery". This screen will also display all of your pictures that you have uploaded to ZCS with the heading title. Here is where you can delete past photos, edit past entries, create a new Category, and add new picture(s).

If you know a category is created already for where you want to post or assign your picture to, then we do not have to create a new category... And we do not have to worry about the "Category" button.

But, let's assume there is not a current category for what you want to put your special project picture in. Click on the "Category" button, a new screen displays showing any previously created categories and how many pictures are currently "assigned" to it. OK, we want to create a new category. Click on "New category" button and the "New category" screen displays. Key in the title name, for example; "Fun Project". Then in the Parent Category drop down menu, where would your new category best fit? Just use the mouse button and click/select the appropriate Parent Category. Now comes the easy part, just type in a general description. You can skip the Published drop down menu, this will change as you and others assign pictures to your new category. So you can leave as "No" for now. You can also leave "Ordering" alone too. The "Ordering" drop down menu will be used when you created several categories and you want them in a specific display order. Check over your entries, everything look good? Great! Now click on the "Save" button if you are satisfied, otherwise click on the "Cancel" button to return to the previous screen with saving any information. Once you clicked on the "Save" button you should be returned to the previous screen and you should see your newly created category "Fun Project". Now click on the "Back to my Gallery" button.

Ok, now you are ready to add a picture to your new category. Click on the "New Picture" button, to display the screen that will allow you to upload your picture and to give it a description. For your new picture key in a title that correlates with the new "Fun Project" category that you created. Now go to the Category pull down menu and look for your newly created "Fun Project" category. Click on it to select it, and then it will be displayed in the Category field. Type in a description of your picture, you can be as detailed or vague as you desire. Once done with the description, it is time to select 1 to 5 pictures to upload. Click on the first open picture path "Browse" button to navigate to find the picture to upload. Generally most pictures are stored in the "My Documents\My Pictures" folder of your computer, but some users do store pictures in other areas. And that is why I use the word "Navigate". You may have to navigate to the special folder where you store your pictures. Once the desired picture is found select it by clicking on it and then the path to the picture is saved in the first field. If you need to add more pictures follow the same steps to add the paths sequentially from top to bottom order.

So, you are finished with the picture paths, you have a category selected, a title for your fun project, and a description for your fun project. Now, click on the "Upload" button that will create a new entry in the gallery, then upload your selected picture(s), assign your pictures to your new category, and apply your description to the picture(s).

Once this processing is completed, you should be able to see your "Fun Project" on the ZCS home page.

John K.

There has been some questions about "How big of a picture can/should I upload?" We'll try to answer some of those here.

I think the simplest answer is: if you get a picture to us, we'll work to get it to look right on the site.

Also, a warming.. Geek Speak below.

As of this writing.. the ZCS pages are setup at 960 pixels wide. Forum Pictures will display up to a width of 720 pixels, and Gallery images will display up to 800 pixels wide. If you upload pictures wider than that, they will (in most cases) be shrunk down to fit the page, and you will then have the option to zoom in on the picture.

Please DO feel free to upload larger pictures. We've got plenty of disk space. If you upload larger size pictures, they'll display better when people click on zoom.




Here are two images: Click on both of them to see what happens:

First, the original picture at 1024 pixels:


Then, the image at 800 pixels:


Now, even deeper GeekSpeak:

We currently have a upload limit of 1 megabyte per picture. But, there is no hard-fast rule about how "big" of a picture that is. JPG/JPEG pictures are compressed. If you select a deep level of compression, the file will be smaller, but the quality degrades.

Opinion: My personal recommendation is set your camera to the biggest size picture it can possibly shoot, then use a photo editing program to reduce the image to a workable size. Crop the picture to the "interesting" material in the photo, edit out red eyes, erase your unmentionables.. then re-size the image to 1024 or 1600 pixels wide. Save them with 20% compression (80% quality), and then upload the photo to ZCS. They should display correctly in both the forum and the gallery, AND still be able to zoom into them for even better views.

Tip: Make sure your subject is well-lit (don't rely only on the flash), and always take at least two shots, double-checking the focus between them.

As always.. if you have ANY problems, please let us know.

Fred.. it doesn't matter how big of a shovel you use, nor how deep of a hole you dig.. if the treasure is not there.. you're not going to find anything.

I posted the message above AFTER you asked the question.

Please check back .. I'm not thru editing all of it.

Lee, don't over think it. It's not that difficult.

First, the photos need to be less than 1 megabyte in size each. If you need help with that, let us know.

Then, sign into ZCS, and on the top menu, click MEDIA then to the right of GALLERY, click on Add/Search Photos.

Enter a title for the photos, select a category, and enter some kind of description.

Then, using the "BROWSE" buttons below there, select photos off of your computer that you want to upload.

Then click UPLOAD, and you should be done.

John, not to get too technical, but there actually already IS such a program in place on the site now. The trouble is that it still has an upper limit for what it can handle.

<insert geek speak here>

I'll take another look.

Update: HA!!!
I think i fixed it!

Please let JohnK or Stony know if you have any problems.