OT-board help/tech support

[khascat]

As I seem to repeat myself a lot with things. I might as well put all useful board related things here. For the beginners. Any other questions can be addressed here and I will update this first post accordingly.

Lesson 1: Quotes
To quote a person, click the quote button on the upper right hand side of the post. When responding to multiple people, make sure that they are all inside [quote] tags. You will have to type them in individually and if you want the name after the first quote put ="name".

Lesson 2: Images
Find a direct URL to the picture you want and place them inside [img] tags. www.imageshack.us and www.photobucket.com will give you the link with the tags.
With the photobucket account, there are 3 sets of codes underneath the pic. To post one here, you will need to copy the last code. The IMG. For Myspace, you would copy the second set. The first set is the direct URL for the picture.

Lesson 3: PMs
To send a Private Message to someone, either click on the PM button under a post they've made or click on their SN, then that button.
At the top of the page there is a link on the 2nd row between profile and log out that normally will say "You have no new messages". When there is a message it will change to "You have (#) new message(s)" clicking on this will bring you to your inbox where you can respond.

When you send a PM it will remain in your outbox until it is read. Then it will move to your sent box. If it is not there, it means it was deleted without being read.
On another note, turning off the pop-up blocker on your browser will result in a little pop-up box whenever you have new messages.

Lesson 4: Avatars
Take a picture and open it in paint. Crop to what you want, a square works best. Open attributes and see how many pixels it is. Then go to the stretch/skew option and put in a number less than 100, 50 works best for something around 200 pixels. Continue to adjust until both dimension are less than 80 pixels. If you think you may go to small, save it before the next adjustment. DO NOT increase the size to make it bigger. The picture will be pixilated and will not look good.

Or as Anna said, send the picture to me and I'll do it if you still can't do it despite my explination above. (Last resorts only)

When you have your picture in the proper size. Go to profile, scroll all the way to the bottom and follow the easy instructions to upload an avatar.

Lesson 5: Downloading from megaupload (aka my videos)
After clicking on the link of the video you want to download, a page will appear with a 3 letter security code at the top. Type the code in the box, hit enter. The box will then say "you can download the video is #seconds" or something similar, usually 45, after the time is up it will say "click to download" If you get an ad for Ebay click "skip this ad" to be brought back to the screen with the security code.

Lesson 6: FLV files
These can be played using the free player found by clicking here This link will start the download of the exe file. All files can also be converted by use of www.media-convert.com I reccomend changing the video quality to at least 500, preferably 1000 or higher, if you don't care about the file size.

[Cali Girl]

I have a question, I've got Windows Media Player, Quicktime player and I still can't view the vids on Ralph Pungen's Blog with all the vids of DWTS. There is a download (free 10 day trial) available, but geez, how many different players do I need. Isn't there one out there that does it all? Anyway, what do you all use to view Ralphs vids?

[khascat]

I have a question, I've got Windows Media Player, Quicktime player and I still can't view the vids on Ralph Pungen's Blog with all the vids of DWTS. There is a download (free 10 day trial) available, but geez, how many different players do I need. Isn't there one out there that does it all? Anyway, what do you all use to view Ralphs vids?

Real Player is the viewer you need, it's a special format that won't be played by anything else.

[mantraone]

I have a question, I've got Windows Media Player, Quicktime player and I still can't view the vids on Ralph Pungen's Blog with all the vids of DWTS. There is a download (free 10 day trial) available, but geez, how many different players do I need. Isn't there one out there that does it all? Anyway, what do you all use to view Ralphs vids?

You need Real Player. Get the free version on top right side.
http://www.real.com/?has-player=true&pl ... 483&bw=419

[Cali Girl]

Just a shout out to my favorite Maks-technician! Katie, loving my new Avatar

[breathless]

Hey Katie ....I have another problem I've made some new glitter banners for my signature, but when I copy and paste and then submit it doesn't work....no glitter banner. I've made changes before and never had a problem. Hmmmmmm, wonder what I'm doing wrong this time ! Can you help me ??????
Barb

[peggyf39]

Katie, help! I don't know what to do on the new opening page. The pics eventually come up but it says Embed HTML (copy & paste). Then there are several lines of what almost looks like gibberish underneath. What am I supposed to do?

I don't have a My Space page. So do I need to do anything? Is that what the copy/paste is for?

Peggy

[Cali Girl]

That is just there if you want to add the slide show to your MySpace page. Ignore it otherwise.

[breathless]

Hi Katie....I think I got it figured out....just posting this to check and make sure !
Barb

[SheriKay]

All right I've got avatar issues. I can't seem to get the file size small enough. I'm using my Mac so I don't have Paint. I've adusted all the settings to try and get the smallest size out of it and I can't seem to get below 50KB which is just frustrating the holy you know what out of me. I'm using Photoshop Elements because that's what I have and saving it as a jpg file. Any suggestions?

Sheri

[khascat]

All right I've got avatar issues. I can't seem to get the file size small enough. I'm using my Mac so I don't have Paint. I've adusted all the settings to try and get the smallest size out of it and I can't seem to get below 50KB which is just frustrating the holy you know what out of me. I'm using Photoshop Elements because that's what I have and saving it as a jpg file. Any suggestions?

Sheri

Lower the quality of the file. If you leave it at 10 for maximum the file will be larger than if you leave it as say 3. Another thing is to save it as a .bmp file (downgrades the quality due to few colors) then convert back to jpeg if the site won't accept bmp.

[SheriKay]

All right I've got avatar issues. I can't seem to get the file size small enough. I'm using my Mac so I don't have Paint. I've adusted all the settings to try and get the smallest size out of it and I can't seem to get below 50KB which is just frustrating the holy you know what out of me. I'm using Photoshop Elements because that's what I have and saving it as a jpg file. Any suggestions?

Sheri

Lower the quality of the file. If you leave it at 10 for maximum the file will be larger than if you leave it as say 3. Another thing is to save it as a .bmp file (downgrades the quality due to few colors) then convert back to jpeg if the site won't accept bmp.

Yeah, I've tried all that. Still nothing below 50. I'm not banging my head against the desk yet but I'm close.

[khascat]

All right I've got avatar issues. I can't seem to get the file size small enough. I'm using my Mac so I don't have Paint. I've adusted all the settings to try and get the smallest size out of it and I can't seem to get below 50KB which is just frustrating the holy you know what out of me. I'm using Photoshop Elements because that's what I have and saving it as a jpg file. Any suggestions?

Sheri

Lower the quality of the file. If you leave it at 10 for maximum the file will be larger than if you leave it as say 3. Another thing is to save it as a .bmp file (downgrades the quality due to few colors) then convert back to jpeg if the site won't accept bmp.

Yeah, I've tried all that. Still nothing below 50. I'm not banging my head against the desk yet but I'm close.

Send it to me via PM, I'll see what I can do.

[chiquita1_1999]

If anyone can help me out with this I'd appreciate it.....

How do you make the avatars that flip through several pics?

[khascat]

If anyone can help me out with this I'd appreciate it.....

How do you make the avatars that flip through several pics?

KristyfromAL is the person to PM for that, I think. I don't have the software for it.