How to Include Images in your Reviews

Pictures can add a lot of life and interest to your reviews and articles and we encourage you to use them wherever relevant.

Including images in your article is a two stage process. First you must upload the image from your computer to this website. Second you must insert  the uploaded image from your article or review. Happily both these steps can be carried out at the same time.

To upload an image open your article for editing and move the cursor to the position where you want to insert the image.  If the image is large make sure you have the cursor on a blank line and, additionally, there is a blank line above and below.

Now click the Insert/Edit image icon in the HTML editor toolbar. When the next screen loads click on the Browse Server button.

At the bottom of the next screen select Upload Images and then browse to the image on your PC you want to upload. Make sure you have used a descriptive file name. If not,  then change it. Then press Upload to transfer the image from your PC to the server.

Once uploaded you will see a thumbnail of the uploaded image. Click that image to insert it,  then press OK.

You are not quite finished as you need to enter the alternate text box for the image.  This text is important as it is displayed instead of the image in browsers with grahics turned off.

Just use a few words that describe your image. Here are some examples:

• RegSeeker main screen
• Statistics page Comodo firewall
• Configuration options for Opera browser

Now click OK and your image should now be inserted in your article.

That's it!

Using Thumbnails Instead of Full Size Images

This suggestion was provided by category editor George Lewe:

In my reviews I use thumbnails for each product to offer a quick visual impression. I don't want it to be too big so it distracts from the text. I found a width 200 pixels appropriate.

The larger image is either 500 pixels high or 500 pixels wide, whatever is reached first when resizing it. This limitation is set for our image upload directory. The upload will resize it for you should try to upload a larger image. I recommend though to resize the image locally using IrfanView for example. The quality will be much better. I recommend to name the images the same distinguished by an extension, e.g. my_image.jpg and my_image_large.jpg.

Once you have uploaded both images you can edit your review. Place the cursor where you want to insert the image, click on the image button in the FCKEditor menu bar (yellow, with mountains and sun). The Image Properties windows pops up. Click on 'Browse Server', another window opens, listing the images in the image folder.

Now select the thumbnail image you uploaded earlier, and then on the far right click on the 'add' word to insert the image into the Image Properties window. Back in that window you should add an Alternate Text (text that is shown in case the image itself cannot be found for some reason). In the 'Align' drop-down list select 'left' or 'right', depending on what side of the paragraph you want the thumbnail to float. I also recommend to cofigure a few pixels horizontal spacing (HSpace) for better readability. I use 8. Before you click OK now to insert the image into your text select and copy the URL string at the top. We need it later.

Select the image in your text now (just click on it) and click on the weblink button of the FCKEditor (Globe symbol with chain at bottom). Place your cursor in the URL textbox and paste the string you've copied earlier. Now change the image name so it points to the larger version of it. Next, select the Target tab in the Link window. In there drop down the target list and select New Window (_blank). Click ok.

Now preview your changes and see how it works.