# New Editor is Online



## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

For those of you who never check the other forums and have gotten used to using the "Quick Reply" box at the bottom of the page, be aware that the new Rich Text Editor is now online via the "Add Reply" button. This new editor makes it far easier to post photos, add active links, add YouTube videos, format your text, check spelling, etc. It's undergone a lot of testing both privately and publicly here on MLS in the Forum Bugs and Testing forum.

Check it out.


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm not sure what is online. I see options for bold, italics, underline, left, center and right and that's it! I found I could only paste in something when its only in html mode.


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Dwight 

That was easy, improvement appreciated


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Dwight (or anyone),

How do you paste a photo please?

I can't find a button for it, nor does Copy and Paste from a photo application seem to work,

Hopefully, 

David
England


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## chooch (Jan 2, 2008)

That is nice.  Thanks Shad.  It was a long wait, but hopefully worth it!


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

I've managed to copy and paste this picture from Chooch's post, but how do I load my own pictures please?


David


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## chooch (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave, I can't see what you see on the 'Add Reply' page.  I believe 1st class members have more options at this time (part of supporting the site).  Dwight or Shad can answer your questions, but I remember Shad posting something about 1st class members getting more with this new addition.  Also, welcome to Mylargescale. 


P.S.  Shad, the emotions are not working at this time.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave - Fred is correct. Some of the features, including the buttons to paste in photos, are available only to 1st Class members. Part of the reason is, as Fred said, to provide additional benefits to those who voluntarily support the site. Additionally, the buttons now tie in directly to a member's 1st Class web space, and when clicked, display thumbnails of all the images in that space, allowing the user/member to simply click on the photo they wish to post.


Non-1st Class members can still post photos using the *[ img][ /img]* tags as follows... 
1 - On any photo posted to the forums, there is a 640 pixel width limit, so you need to resize your photos so they are no wider than 640 pixels. Anything posted which is wider than that will be converted to a simple link by the first moderator who sees it.

2 - Filenames: Avoid using special characters in filenames. Stick with letters, numbers, the hyphen ( - ), and the underscore ( _ ). Also avoid spaces in filenames. Spaces, parenthesis, asterisks, punctuation marks, ampersands, etc. should be avoided in filenames as these will all cause problems when trying to post the photo.

3 - In order to post a photo, it needs to be uploaded to a web server. Photos cannot be posted that live on your local hard drive because there's no way for MLS to contact your computer via the internet and get the photo in order to display it. Most ISPs provide web space to their customers. Some (though not all) photos services will also work - sites such as PhotoBucket. 1st Class members get 100mb of web space to host their photos as part of their membership.

4 - Once your photo is uploaded to a web server, it has a _URL_ associated wth it. To post the photo on MLS, enclose the photo's URL in the *[ img][ /img]* tags like so...

*[ img]PhotoURL[ /img]* (without the spaces - I had to insert them so the img tags would show up here).

I know it sounds complicated, but it's easier to do than to explain. Once you've done it a few times, it becomes second nature.  Use the Forum Bugs and Testing forum to try a few practice photos until you get the hang of it.

All - we'll be coming out with a FAQ on using the new editor soon.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

David

Since you're not a 1st Class member you have limited functions available in the editor, but to include an image use the following Forum Code.

*[***img]*ImageURLGoes Here*[***/img]*
_(Note, remove the asterisks from the tags so they'll execute.)_

For example the following is what I entered in the editor's text area to get the following image to be included in the reply.

*[***img]*http://gold.mylargescale.com/stevec/Misc-Files/147314pr.jpg*[***/img]*


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Thanks, Dwight, let's give it a whirl:











should be an Aster Climax.

David


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Woo Hoo - Success thanks guys.

Her's a Chaney Climax (hopefully - I've changed my process this time)








[/b]

David


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

David

When I use the URL that you entered for the location of the image, and use it in the browser's address field, I run into a Google Sites Login screen, which is why the image isn't being displayed in your reply. You see the image because you've got the required User ID & password saved on your computer, but others only see a little red *x* in a box in place of the image.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Success thanks guys


Oh Yes? I don't see nuthin'. ;-) [] 

David - if you right-click the red X, you can select 'properties' and that will tell you what the photo URL (web address) actually is. Neither of yours seem like the address of a picture.


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Bother!

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes, I put the pictures on my Google website.

Must rethink.

I could see the first one myself ('cos I'm logged in to Google) but not the second (I used a tinyurl, but also the image was taller than its 640 width).


Ill keep trying, and sorry it's trying your patience.

David


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

OK lets' try this:











David


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)




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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Hope you can see this one. David


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## NHSTEAMER (Jan 2, 2008)

http://www.mylargescale.com/1stclass/NHSTEAMER/DSC00608.JPG
_(Image exceeds 640 pixel max. width - converted to link - Mod)_


works thank you


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## NHSTEAMER (Jan 2, 2008)

the photos are very large should we still be keeping them under 60K


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## k5pat (Jan 18, 2008)

* This is nice!!!!*


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

David,

Just for the record, you're not in any way trying anyone's patients.

The reply _(i.e. Date/Time Stamp - 09/25/2008 10:32 AM)_ that you used the following as the image's URL worked just fine.

http://sites.google.com/site/tuppencetestsite/_/rsrc/1222350636726/Home/Aster%20Climax.jpg

In checking, that format also works for other of your images that displayed as the little red x in previous replies. As can be seen from the following images.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2008)

bghj


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By NHSTEAMER on 09/25/2008 8:53 AM
the photos are very large should we still be keeping them under 60K 


1 - On any photo posted to the forums, there is a 640 pixel width limit, so you need to resize your photos so they are no wider than 640 pixels. Anything posted which is wider than that will be converted to a simple link by the first moderator who sees it.

Filesize is a function of both image resolution (size) and compression (often referred to as "Quality"). See this thread[/b] for a discussion of filesize and compression. Generally speaking, it's better to keep filesize as small as possible while still maintaining acceptable image quality. That not only speeds downloads for all members and reduces bandwidth consumed by MLS, it also saves on your web space.


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## David Halfpenny (Sep 24, 2008)

Thanks Steve.

I was worried about getting lots more little red kisses ;-)

What I did was to set up a free Google Sites website and put my pictures on there.

The reason the links work now is that I've gone back and set the site Accessibility to Whole Wide World or somesuch.


I deduce that the 640 pixels is to fit the page format.

Taking the point about file size, I don't think we need worry too much because:

- a 640 x image is never going to be very big
- the image itself does not appear in MLS and does not travel with the email feed: it's just a web link that opens inside the message.


Or have I got that wrong?

Anyway I've compressed my pictures as hard as they'll go, resulting in sizes around 100kB or less.


David


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## Pufftmd (Jan 25, 2008)

Okaaaaa....

This works... 


But I can't get the font size to work..... hmmmmmm.... will do further testing....


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

The reason the links work now is that I've gone back and set the site Accessibility to Whole Wide World or somesuch.
David, what you say may be true, but only the URL format that I exampled in the above reply will let the image display for others.

I deduce that the 640 pixels is to fit the page format. 
The 640 pixel limit is in regards to the width only (i.e. left/right dimension). The reason for this limit is to eliminate the need for left/right scrolling to read the replies on a page for those members that are limited in the resolution that their system can handle.

As for the height (i.e. top to bottom) of an image there is no restriction, for example your picture of the locomotive on the trestle measures 640 pixels wide and 816 pixels in height, which is fine.

Taking the point about file size, I don't think we need worry too much because:

- a 640 x image is never going to be very big 
That doesn't really hold completely true, while image dimensions do have affect on file size. You can have an image whose dimensions are 640 x 480 and still have a file size of a couple of mega bytes (i.e. 2,000,000 bytes). For example, the image of the locomotive on the trestle has dimensions of 640 pixels x 816 pixels, yet the file size is 107,558 bytes in size. The other image of yours in my reply measures 640 pixels x 479 pixels, and has a file size of 85,714 bytes.

- the image itself does not appear in MLS and does not travel with the email feed: it's just a web link that opens inside the message.
The actual image isn't stored on the MLS server, in your case it's stored on the Google server where your web site is stored. However, each time a user on MLS opens the topic where you've placed a link to one of your images, the MLS server downloads a copy from the Google server then passes that copy as part of the web page that MLS sends to the user that is trying to look at the page with your images included in a reply.

This is one place where you can run into a problem, for example lets say that Google has a bandwidth limit (and I don't know if they do or don't) on each of its free web sites (i.e. amount of data transmitted and/or received within a specified period of time on behalf of a user.). You create a topic on MLS that has five image links in the reply. Then 75 users on MLS open your topic basically at the same time, that means that the MLS server will access the Google server 75 times, and download 75 copies of the five images you included. Depending on the bandwidth limit that Google may have set, those 75 requests may exceed the bandwidth, and access to your images will be denied until a period of time has elapsed. The result is the little red kiss (i.e. *x*) in a box even though there's nothing wrong with the manner in which you created the request to include the image in your reply.

If you encounter this problem just stop using the image tags and instead use the URL link tags (i.e. *[***url]* & *[***/url]*). That way nothing is downloaded from the Google server until someone opens your topic and then clicks the URL link to your image. Even then just that one image will be downloaded, while the other four links just sit there.

Anyway I've compressed my pictures as hard as they'll go, resulting in sizes around 100kB or less. 
So long as the file size stays somewhere around 150,000 bytes or less you'll be OK. Again the main reason for the concern is the amount of time it takes to download really large files on members systems that are stuck with slow dial-up modem connections.

Just as a FYI, if you're using MS/Internet Explorer and you want to see information on one of your images displayed in a browser window. Just right-click the image, then select and click the Properties item on the context menu that displays, when the properties page displays you'll find the URL for the image, the displayed image dimensions (i.e. width & height), and the file size in bytes listed. Other browsers have the same capabilities I'm just not sure of how to use them.

 Hope the above is of help to you, any other questions feel free to ask away.
SteveC


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## FH&PB (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks, Dwight, This is indeed good to know. The old rich editor refused to work correctly with my browser, for reasons I didn't really care to waste time chasing down. If you're seeing this, the new one works - _yay_!


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## hap (Jan 3, 2008)

this is great for uploading pics!!!!!!


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