Update: Effective January 1, 2014, Carl's Sims 3 Gallery will start being phased out. Please read this thread for details.Please note: members must have a minimum of 10 posts to be eligible to register for a Gallery account.I now have an image posting solution for us that many of you will love. I've installed Coppermine Gallery on the server at
http://www.carls-sims-3-forum.com/gallery/. This web app will allow you to share pictures on the Gallery and link to them in posts. We'll soon have an ugly thumbnail shortage around here.
I do not want anyone other than our Forum members to register at the new Gallery, and I'd like to make it a rule that you
use your Forum name when registering. I need to know who's who to keep track of resource usage and to prevent confusion.
In the interests of security, I'm requiring admin approval for registration, so only actual Forum members will have access to post in the Gallery.
At this time email notification of account approval is broken so you will not get confirmation that your account has been activated. Rest assured this will take less than 24 hours and probably far less as often as I tend to check these things. Of course some of our mods may want to volunteer to approve accounts as well.
I would have preferred a solution better integrated with the Forum but this stand-alone app will be easy to back up. It looks like I'm going to need a bigger hard drive down the road!
Keep in mind these have to be backed up and don't use the Gallery for storing hundreds of images you aren't going to use on the Forum. However, some use as a vehicle to show off pictures from your Gallery is fine by me. I'll just be watching for people with way too many pictures that aren't tended to. The server automatically scales images into the jpeg format at a width of 800 pixels, and it's small. But multiplied over thousands of pictures it begins to seriously add up.
So, as a rule of thumb, if you aren't using an image in a Forum post but will be nurturing it -- giving it keywords and a description, then feel free to use the Gallery for that. In fact, that could be helpful as in the future running an ad slot on the Gallery may help to cover the expenses of the inevitable storage backup needs. The Gallery will eventually make its way to Google and guests may view these. Giving your images keywords will help people find them through image search.
That's just it - you have control over the pictures in your Gallery and we can browse them. Multiple image upload is as simple as holding Control and clicking the files in the browse interface. Make things easier on yourself by naming your folders something distinct.
You need to make a folder before you can make your first upload. That one's for you, Dynasty bloggers.
Rules and Guidelines1. The Gallery's primary role is to serve images for the Forum.
2. Do not upload non-Sims material.
3. Do not upload masses of screenshots you won't use.
4. If not using an image in a forum post, describe/keyword it to show why you want to share.
5. Be responsive if I ask you to whittle back the collection.
6. The above is easier if you sort your content into folders so that you know what you are using on the forum and what's just in storage.
7. Use of the Gallery is restricted to Forum members with a minimum of 10 posts.Instructions for Inserting Images in Posts1. After uploading your image to the Gallery, click it to see the full size.
2. Right-click the image and copy the path (Copy image location, destination, URL, etc.) This URL is the path to your image.
3. There have been reports that this option doesn't show up sometimes. In this case, it might be a browser issue. If you have another browser you can try, it might work. Otherwise, a workaround is to right click, select Properties, then copy the URL from that window.
4. Back on the Forum and in your post, put the cursor at the spot you want the image to be and click the Insert Image button (located below the italicize button). This automatically drops the image tags into your post and places your cursor in the exact spot to copy your image URL.
5. Right-click and Paste or use Ctrl-V to paste the URL of your image.
6. The image is fed to your post from the server.
7. Inserting multiple images is easy, just copy the code for image 1 and replace the file names.
Note: It is recommended that you upload images directly from your Sims 3 file Screenshots folder. The path is: C:Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3/Screenshots. Depending on which version of Windows you use, it may be My Documents. For Mac users, the path is basically the same.
Below are some images to help walk you through the upload and posting process (courtesy of samoht04).
This tutorial will show you the stages and method in which you can upload and share your pictures on the forum, this method is designed for use of the Gallery, if you use
Photobucket to upload images please see this tutorial. Your first step should be to go to the forum homepage, as seen below.
To access the Gallery you should click on the "
Gallery" button shown below on the navigation bar, between "
The Sims 3 Guide" and "
Help".
You will then be redirected to the Gallery page, this is where you will need to
log in, or
register.
To
login click the "
login" button on the navigation menu, between "
Register" and "
Album List". If you have not registered for the Gallery you should click "
Register" instead.
Once you have clicked "
login", proceed to enter your user information of your username and password - whatever you entered when registering for the gallery. It would make sense to have those details the same as for your Forum account.
Once you have logged in you will see the Gallery Page with new options in the Navigation bar.
Now to upload an image you should click on the "
Upload" Button on the Navigation Bar. Between "
My Gallery" and "
Logout [YourUsername]".
From there you will see the following page, this is where you choose the album you wish to upload the images to as well as which images.
To create a new album see this post.
Select the album you want by clicking the drop-down box, then select the album you want.
With your album selected you can now click the "
Browse" Button to add the images you wish to upload.
You will then see your Computer Folder open, depending on where the window opens to you will have to navigate to where your The Sims 3 Folder is on your computer. For most this will be in "
My Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 3". This may not be the same folder that your actual game is installed into, this is the User Data folder for the game where downloads etc. are stored.
Once inside your The Sims 3 Folder locate your Screenshots folder.
This is the path for my screenshots folder:
Inside your screenshots folder will be any screenshots taken in game, either via the Camera Button or the use of the "C" Key. You can have any number of screenshots in this folder, depending on how often you clear the folder out. I have recently done this and only have one image in currently. The oldest screenshots will have the lowest numbers, the first screenshot will be simply called "Screenshot".
Select the image you wish to upload, or images by Control-Clicking or Shift-Clicking to set two points and select all between those two images. Click "
Open".
The image will then process and upload.
Once the image has "
Completed" and all thumbnails appear, select the "
Continue" button. You will be taken to the following page. Here you can edit the details of an image, add tags, a description and a title. You also have a link to the direct URL you need.
Highlight the URL Code shown below, it will be unique to your image and this is the URL you will need to add an image to a post. Copy the code either with Control+C or Right+Click+Copy.
Make a new post, where you want to share the image or images. Paste the URL into the Post Body.
Highlight the URL again, then press the highlighted button above the URL, it had the image of a painting on. This will add the
[ IMG ] tags, or you can type the IMG tags out yourself.
Preview your post and the image should appear above:
You can then post and the image will appear in the thread.
Updated: June 26, 2013 -
Tutorial
