Scratch

So you need some help with Pictures and Screenshots, right? Well, take a look around this great guide to find what you need. There is a lot of great information and pictures! This guide is also updated frequently, so the information is always up to date.

Contents
a. How to put a picture from your computer files onto the forums
b. How to add an image that comes from a different webpage to the Scratch forums
c. How to take a picture of your computer screen (Screenshot)

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a. How to put a picture from your computer files onto the forums

First, go to an image sharing site. I use tinypic, or imgur, because they are free, and you don't have to sign up to use them, like Photobucket. Since tinypic and imgur are the easiest to use, I will show you how to use them. I actually prefer imgur over tinypic, because you can upload more than one image at a time,it has a very simple interface, and no advertising. So enough talking, I'll show you the steps:
   

It doesn't matter, just pick one! (the pictures are links) 


Great, now you are ready to upload!
On both imgur, and tinypic, there is a button that says browse. Look familiar?



Now, a window should pop up with your computers files and documents. Go find your picture you want to upload, and click 'Open'. You are almost done!


(skip if you are using imgur) On tinypic, there is a Captcha window that comes up. For safety purposes, you must type the two words.


Okay, now it's uploading time! On tinypic you click 'Upload Now!' and on imgur you click 'Continue'


After loading, which should not take too long, your picture will be uploaded onto either tinypic, or imgur. Now all you have to do is copy the Message Board code.





Paste the code into a forum post. It may not look like much, but when you submit your post, your image will come up. When I did this, this was my result:

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b. How to add an image that comes from a different webpage to the Scratch forums

So you found a picture on a different website, and you want to put it on a forum post, how do you do it? I will gladly show you how! First you have to right click on the picture you find then a menu should come up. I'm using Firefox, and this is what comes up:



Click 'View Image Info' or on Internet Explorer 'Properties'
In Firefox, a window opens up that looks like this: (click photo to enlarge)

In Internet Explorer, a window opens up that looks like this:



Highlight the Location (in Internet Explorer, Address (URL) ) , and copy and paste it into a forum post. Wait, don't submit yet! You still have to add the forum BBcode for it to show up as a picture. It is very simple though.

Before

http://scratch.mit.edu/img/gr_logo_scratchr.png

After (notice you have to add the 'img' tag around the image url)

[img]http://scratch.mit.edu/img/gr_logo_scratchr.png[/img]

And finally the result. I got this!

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c. How to take a picture of your computer screen (Screenshot)

Welcome to this part of the guide! When you point a real camera at a screen and take a picture, it never turns out really good, and you wonder how it will turn out as clear as the screen. Well, that is exactly what a Screenshot is! You may have never knew, but all computers are capable of taking Screenshots with no software! It's simple, just follow the steps:

First you find the Screen you want a picture of. Then find the button on your keyboard that says PrtScn SysRq, or on some keyboards just Print Screen.



Press that button, and it will take a picture of you screen. To save it, open a new Microsoft Paint document. You don't have to use Paint, some people use programs like GIMP and PhotoShop, but I find Paint the easiest. When Paint opens press Control+V (or Edit+Paste in the program) on your keyboard. Your screenshot should appear in the paint document. Then you can save it. (File+Save or Control+S) I took a Screenshot of the Scratch Program: (click the photo to enlarge)


If you only want part of it to be the picture, just use some of the cutting tools in Paint to cut out just what you want. Just don't forget to save the Screenshot after working with it. This was my result:

There, that's better. 
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Well, I hope you learned a lot from this guide to help you in the Scratch Forums, images always enhance posts to make them more helpful and interesting. Scratch On everyone!
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This post is intended for PC users, and may not help out others with different Operating Systems.

Updated: July 6th 2010

Last edited by coka (2010-07-06 20:46:33)