Mr. Ed's Computer Help Forum FAQ's & Answers

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Mr. Ed's Computer Help Forum FAQ's & Answers

Here are some brief explanations of some of the questions you may have about the rules & etiquette for Mr. Ed's Computer Help Forum along with some common questions that have been routinely asked and answered.

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Why Should I include an Optional Image in my message?

There's an old saying that: "A picture is worth a thousand words". That's never been more accurate than for images of computer dialog boxes, examples, etc., when you're trying to explain to someone else just what you mean, or how to do something.

In order for an image to be included with your posted message, it *MUST* be stored online and have a URL associated with it, it *can not* be stored on your computer.

I have decided to allow you to upload your images to be included within your posted message to my server using Mr. Ed's Image Uploader.

• There will be a 50 KB image file size limit, and only .gif, .jpg, and .png images will be allowed. •

I will be aware of any image uploaded as soon as it is uploaded.

Hot linking to any image uploaded to my server will not be permitted period, no exceptions!!

• Your IP Address, and Host Name will be logged when you press the *Upload Your Image File* button regardless if you succeed in uploading the image, or not. •

After you click the upload button, you will be taken to another page showing you the URL of your image to use when the upload process is complete. Simply copy it to your Clipboard to paste into the Optional Image URL box.

I will *strongly discourage* uploading an image unless it is relevant to the posted message's content, in other words, only to illustrate what you're describing, etc.

Please *do not abuse* this new feature, or I will be forced to block your IP Address which will prevent you from using it.

• If this becomes a problem for me, or my server, it *will be discontinued*!! •

A note regarding the image *format* that you use (save the image as), the GIF format will be best for approximately 90% of the images that are used online (and *especially* in e-mails), the exception to that would be for *photos* where the JPEG format would be best.

The reason for this is simple, *on average* the GIF (.gif) format is smaller in byte size than a JPEG (.jpg) format for the same image, especially when used for computer dialog boxes, etc. The PNG (.png) format is also a popular format to use instead of the GIF format, but they are not always smaller in byte size, in fact, many times they are larger than a JPEG format for the same image for even computer dialog boxes.

Note: The smaller the image byte size, the faster it will load when a web page loads, so it's being considerate towards Dialup users to use the smallest possible byte size for the best *acceptable* format.

The byte size is determined by the number of colors used/allowed in the image, as well as the native compression used for that particular format. The GIF format is limited to 256 colors, where the JPEG and PNG format(s) can have up to 16 *million* colors.

The general "rule of thumb" for what format to use is this:

Use GIF (.gif) for general purpose images, and transparency is required.
Use JPEG (.jpg/.jpeg) for images with many colors, such as photos.
Use PNG (.png) for images with many colors, and transparency is required.

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