A Primer on Using HTML in Your Posts

On September 18, 2002

src=”img/forums/stocklogo.gif” width=”112″ height=”112″>

face=Arial size=2>
INCLUDING IMAGES AND USING HTML IN TIMEZONE
POSTS

by Michael Sandler and Mike Disher

Creating a Digital
Image

Most images you see on TimeZone were created with a
digital camera, and digital cameras are the best way to create a lifelike
image. Some people also place watches on a scanner to capture an image. For
more information about digital images and photography, visit TimeZone’s href=”http://www.timezone.com/forum.aspx?forumId=texposure”>Time Exposure
forum.

Preparing or Editing the
Image

Once you have a digital image, you need to prepare it for
posting. This usually means getting the image to your computer and
manipulating it. If you used a digital camera, transfer the image(s) to your
computer per the instructions that came with the camera. If you used a
scanner, the image should already be on your computer.

Next, edit the image using photo editing software such as
Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Editing the image includes re-sizing the image,
adjusting the file size, manipulating brightness and other aspects of the
image, and selecting a file type. Most images posted on TimeZone are either
.jpg (or .jpeg) or .gif. Try to keep the file size down to 100K or less, so
the image will load quickly. Small file sizes are especially important if you
plan to include multiple images in your post.

Getting Your Image to a Host
Server

For the moment, TimeZone does not offer image hosting,
though this feature is on the way. For now, before you can post an image on
TimeZone, you must transfer it to a server. Most people use either free
webspace provided by their ISP, or commercial image hosting companies like
Imagestation.com. You should follow the instructions provided by your image
hosting service for uploading images to their server. Uploading is often
accomplished via FTP software. There are many FTP clients available.

Once your image is on the host server, it will have a URL
or address. An example of an image URL is:
color=blue>
http://www.timezone.com/img/forums/stocklogo.gif

Posting Your Image on
TimeZone

When you post a message on TimeZone, there are 2 ways to
use the image URL to make the image appear in your post. The easiest way is to
use the “Image URL” box on the compose message page. You type or paste the
image URL in the box, and your picture automatically appears in your message.

The second way to include the image in the post is to use
HTML. HTML is also the only way to include multiple images in your message,
and to control where one or more images appear in your message. This is
explained below.

Enhancing Text

To
make some of your text bold:

Turn on the bold with <b>

Type the text you want bolded.

Turn off the bold with color=#0000ff></b>
For example, to create text which
looks like this:

              I
really like watches.
…you would type the
following:

I <b>really</b> like
watches.

You can use the same method to italicize text or
underline
it.

To italicize text, simply substitute color=#0000ff><i> and color=#0000ff></i> for color=#0000ff><b> and color=#0000ff></b>

To underline text, simply substitute color=#0000ff><u> and color=#0000ff></u> for color=#0000ff><b> and color=#0000ff></b>

You can also combine the codes. For
example, to create text which looks like
this:

I really like watches.
…you would type the
following:

I
<b><u><i>really</i></u></b> like
watches.

Adding images

To
include an image in your post, the image must first be stored somewhere on the
web. Once you have determined the URL (web address) of the image, including it
in your post can be done by the following:

Start the statement with <img src =

Specify the full URL (inside quotation marks) for the web-page you’re
linking to by entering the parameter color=#0000ff>”http://_______________“ followed by
>. The _______________ should be
replaced by the URL of the image you want to include.
For
example, to add the TimeZone logo (which has the URL
http://www.timezone.com/img/forums/stocklogo.gif) to a post, you would
type the
following:

<img src =
“http://www.timezone.com/img/forums/stocklogo.gif”>
…which
would create this image:

color=red>You can add multiple images by simply repeating the above steps
again for the next picture (that is, simply change the picture URL to that of
the second image).

Centering Text or
Images

To center a position of your text:

Turn on the centering with <div
align=center>

Type the text (or the image tag – see above) you want centered.

Turn off the centering with color=#0000ff></div>
For example, to center the
phrase “I really like watches”, you would type the
following:

<div align=center>I really like
watches</div>
…which would create the following:

I really like watches

As another example, to center
the TimeZone logo used in the example above, you would type the
following:

<div align=center><img src =
“http://www.timezone.com/img/forums/stocklogo.gif”></div>
…which
would create the following:

src=”img/forums/stocklogo.gif” width=”112″ height=”112″>

Linking

To include a
link in your post:

Start the statement with <a href =

Specify the full URL (inside quotation marks) for the web-page you’re
linking to by entering the parameter color=#0000ff>”http://_______________“ followed by
>. The _______________ should be
replaced by the URL of the webpage you want to link.

Enter the text that will serve as the hypertext link itself.

Enter the closing tag: </A> (no
space is needed before the end tag).
For example, to create a
link which says “Click here for TimeZone” and links to www.timezone.com, you
would insert the following line in your
post:

<A HREF=”http://www.timezone.com”>Click here for
TimeZone</A>
…which would create this link:

Click here for
TimeZone