ATS Media Guide - upload pics, embed pics, manage albums, avatar & sig, mini-profile backgrounds

ATS Media Guide

I've noticed a lot of people seem to have trouble using ATS media to upload pictures etc, I thought a guide might be nice for those having trouble, and a few people said it would be a good idea, so here we go.


Accessing ATS Media:

First you need to access ATS media. If you're on ATS, you should see "VIDEO & MEDIA" in the top left corner. Click that link and you will taken to ATS media.

If you aren't logged into ATS media, you will see something like this. Input your regular ATS account details into the username and password fields. Hit the "login" button.


Upload Pictures:

Next you should see the following screen. Click on the "Personal Upload" link the arrow is pointing to.

Now you should see something like this.

1. This is the name that will appear under your photo when viewed in your album.
2. A description of your picture goes here.
3. A drop down menu will allow you to select which album you would like to upload the picture into.
4. Click the browse button and choose the picture you want to upload.

Finally, hit the "add photo" button and you should see something like this after your image uploads, it may take a while depending on the size of the image and your connection speed. Before you can upload a photo into another album, you need to create another album, which you will learn how to do shortly.

1. You can also upload photo's by using this button when viewing an album.


Embed Pictures:

Now, click on the image you uploaded, and you should see something like this.

1. This is the text you will use for your avatar.
2. This is the text you will use for your mini-profile background.
3. This is the text you can use to embed the image on a thread.

The first 2 values will be needed shortly as well, so save them too. The 3rd field utilizes the atsimg tag. An example of the embedding text (field 3) might be:

atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/55ab733d76a6.jpg[/atsimg]

I removed the [ character from the start because that would embed the image, even when it's inside a code tag, although it really shouldn't, and that's why I tried to use the code tag. What I'm saying is, on most forums, you should be able to use BB code inside a code tag and expect it not to act like BB code, and show as text instead.



Manage Albums:

If you click on the "Manage Photo Albums", as shown by the arrow, you should see something like the that. As you can see, you are able to delete and edit all your albums except for your default "my photos" album.

To create an album, click on the "create album" link and choose a name for it.

Finally, you should see something like that once the album has been created.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5bbbfdd5bce0.jpg[/atsimg]You can change the location (album) of an existing image by clicking on the "options" link under the picture you want to move, then select the "Edit Picture" link. Change it to the album you want and hit "Modify Photo". That should do the trick.


Avatar & Signature:

To change your avatar the easy way, simply click the "options" link under which ever image you wish to be your avatar, and click on the "Set As Avatar" option.

The other way to do this, means you want to go to your ATS account settings, so go to the ATS board home, and click on the member tools button, then select "ATS account settings".

Remember the 3 text fields from earlier when we were talking about embedding images, copy the text from the first field labeled "Use as ATS Avatar".

1. Paste the text in this field.
2. You can change your signature here. Most BB code is supported.


Mini-profile backgrounds:

Next click on the "ATS Store" link in the side menu, as shown by the arrow. Wait a second for the page to load, then click on the "image" button as shown by the arrow.

You will now see something like this. Again, you're going to need the text from earlier, this time the text from the second field labeled "Use as your mini-profile background on ATS". Paste the text from this field into the field shown by the arrow and hit the "enter" button. You will need a sufficient amount of ATS or BTS points.


BB Code

Lets say you want to add an image from image shack or something like that, you can use the img tag. You can either do it manually, or use the insert image button:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b51cbdab4812.jpg[/atsimg]
You will then see something like this when you click the button:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/af7d87702fec.jpg[/atsimg]
Just input the url of the image, and you're done.

Lets say you have the url of an image, such as hxxp://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7290/test5rh5.png. You can then wrap an img tag around that to embed it in a post. BB code is a markup language used for forum posting. It stands for Bulletin Board Code. It's a fairly simple concept, you have an opening and closing tag. It's similar to HTML actually. Except instead of using [ and ] characters, HTML uses the < and > character.

[atsimg]hxxp://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/55ab733d76a6.jpg[/atsimg]

If I were to change the [ and ] characters to [ and ] what would happen? Lets see:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/55ab733d76a6.jpg[/atsimg]



Hopefully you get the idea. BB is code used for things like inserting links and images, formatting text, and embedding videos...You might find this useful also:

A Guide to BBCode on ATS

Want to know the code I used for that link?

A Guide to BBCode on ATS

Yes, replace the [ and ] characters, and you'll have a link. You can also place img and atsimg tags inside the url tag, something like this:

[atsimg]hxxp://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4e92ec494058.gif[/atsimg]

Replacing the [ and ] characters, we get what you see in my signature, clicking on it will take you to this thread:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4e92ec494058.gif[/atsimg]

Note: I replaced the t's in http with x's and used [ and ] in my examples because I didn't want it interpreted as BB code.

P.S. - The best way to learn BB code, is to use the quote button and see how it's done:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/membe r/ca6639a99c67.jpg[/atsimg]


BB Code Images Advanced

After reading through some of the ATS BB Guide, I decided to add the following information about embedding images.

Embedding an Image

Embedding an External Image Link

Left Justifying an Image with Wrapping Text

This forum is dedicated to general conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and government scandals that may not fit into other topical forums on ATS. Discussion topics and follow-up responses in this forum will likely tend to lean in favor of conspiracies, scandals, and cover-ups. Members who would seek to refute such theories should be mindful of AboveTopSecret.com\'s tradition of focusing on conspiracy theory, cover-ups, and scandals.

This forum is dedicated to general conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and government scandals that may not fit into other topical forums on ATS....

Right Justifying an Image with Wrapping Text

This forum is dedicated to general conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and government scandals that may not fit into other topical forums on ATS. Discussion topics and follow-up responses in this forum will likely tend to lean in favor of conspiracies, scandals, and cover-ups. Members who would seek to refute such theories should be mindful of AboveTopSecret.com\'s tradition of focusing on conspiracy theory, cover-ups, and scandals.

This forum is dedicated to general conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and government scandals that may not fit into other topical forums on ATS....

An Alternative to *img* for Embedding an Image

Resizing an Image

Centering an Image

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/985a35b58352.png[/atsimg]

[atsimg]hxxp://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/985a35b58352.png[/atsimg]

Using the atsimg tag will not create scroll bars on your images if they are wider than the page, but it will center your images. Using the img tag will create scroll bars, however if you hit the preview button before submitting or editing a post, any images uploaded to your ATS media account will be converted to atsimg tags. You can only use the atsimg tag on images you've uploaded via ATS Media, but the img tags can be used for local and remote images.


That's pretty much it, hope it helped!

[edit on 13/6/10 by CHA0S]

reply to post by CHA0S


CHA0S.....

Thanks for your guide!

I have only 1 album ("My Pictures) & it has about 5 million pictures in it, so I have 2 very dumb questions.....

1. How do I put a picture in a different album (not "My Pictures") when I save it?

2. How do I move pictures from "My Pictures" to other albums?

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


If you have a look under the "Upload Pictures" section of the guide, you'll see how choose which album the image goes into.

EDIT: Explanation moved to opening post.

[edit on 13/6/10 by CHA0S]

reply to post by CHA0S


Is work very gooooooood!!!!!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1957c8ac9991.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


Haha...good to hear.

2nd

Great job. I typed out these instructions before for a member but you did a better job than I did with screenshots. Nicely done.

By the way I sent a request to the mods to make this thread a sticky. I never found anything like this and I think they need this in a sticky.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Thank you, I'm glad you liked the thread. I was surprised myself that there still wasn't a thread like this, which was one of the main reasons I ended up making this thread. The lack of response was a little unexpected though, maybe there weren't as many people as I thought having trouble with this.

Great job!!!!

I'm sure alot of people could benefit from this so flag from me!

reply to post by CHA0S


Cheers Chaos, that helps but i'm still not clear on what these [] are and what they do.
Could you go through the procedure of putting a picture in a thread from my ATS media files.
I am in a post, i click on the enter url for image icon, then what?
Thanks.

reply to post by Cosmic4life


Once you've uploaded the picture to your album, click on it, hopefully you'll see something like this:

Just paste the text from the 3rd field into your post and the picture will appear.

EDIT: Moved explanation to opening post.

[edit on 13/6/10 by CHA0S]

Every time I go to the media portal my ATS logon credentials don't work and after hearing that that could be due to the fact that I may have changed my PW at some point I try to register but get the message that the media portal is closed to sign ups.

I just gave up.

reply to post by CHA0S

Thanks for this really helpful thread, it certainly deserves to be a sticky

The section on managing Photo Albums was a real help. Like Maybe...maybe not I'd had everything in the default 'My Photos'.

I just made new albums and to move pictures between albums I was deleting and re-uploading - didn't realise I could just use 'Edit Picture' from the drop down 'Options' link below the pics - doh!

Nice to see that my Avatar, in-post pictures etc. still appeared in threads as usual after switching albums.

Found I could get 'stuck' in my profile gallery when looking at pics, but found that clicking on 'Personal Upload' at the page top gets back to the Manage Photo Albums option (or clicking on 'My Pictures' from the 'My Account' drop down menu link top right)

There are some useful tutorial videos by Skeptic Overlord available via the 'Help' button at the top of the screen, but this thread has a lot of extra useful detail.

Tutorial: Using the My Pictures section

I also just found loam's great thread on using BBCode in the ATS Freshman's Forum (which I didn't even know existed until today - doh! again)

A Guide to BBCode on ATS

The help is much appreciated - Im terrible with this sort of stuff and, believe me, i need some pretty elementary tuition.

I'll have a muck about with it and see if i can get things to work, and yes - this thread definately needs to have a higher profile to help people like me!

Thank you for making the effort!

Gosh! My avatar picture still didnt come up... back to the drawing board

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Silver Star]

More help here...

Avatar & Media FAQ's.

... including SO's video walk-through.




For those having trouble accessing their Media account, be advised you must use your ORIGINAL ATS User Name and Password (regardless of whether you've re-registered since ), and have all ad blockers disabled.

Originally posted by Jbird

For those having trouble accessing their Media account, be advised you must use your ORIGINAL ATS User Name and Password (regardless of whether you've re-registered since ), and have all ad blockers disabled.

If I remember right from when I had this problem, if you can't find your original password you can use the "forgot password" link on the ATS login page to get a new ATS-generated password, which will then work on the Media site as well.

reply to post by americandingbat


Makes sense. The original or an official re-issuance, which replaces the original.


Thanks for the first hand info, Ms. 'bat.

reply to post by Jbird


Thanks for that piece of information, it seems a lot of people change their password and have that problem.

EDIT: I just want to add a BIG THANK YOU to all the mods that have given me an applause for this thread, I don't usually contact mods when I receive an applause, but I'll just give a thanks here and hopefully it's seen.

[edit on 13/6/10 by CHA0S]

reply to post by CHA0S
Thanks for taking the time to lay out this thread. The folder options will be very useful. I understand we can load pdfs? I've got a few I want to load up, but the first attempt failed...

Flagged

reply to post by Kandinsky


Upload Media

To upload media like videos or PDF files, first click on the "UPLOAD MEDIA" link in the upper right hand corner, wait a second and you should see something like the above image.

1. Title of your media
2. Description of your media
3. Key words or tags go here
4. Choose a category for your media

Now hit the "Upload Media File" button, however you might first want to set sharing options by selecting the "Choose Options" link which I forgot to circle.

Now you'll see something like this (without the pop-up window). Hit the circled "Browse" button and the file browser window will pop-up. Select your media file and hit the circled "Open" button. You can also hit the uncircled "Browse" button to choose a thumbnail image for your media. Now hit the circled "Upload" button.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1cf74067255d.jpg[/atsimg]Wait until it reaches 100%.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7c137cf6ae7e.jpg[/atsimg]If it was successful you'll see something like this.

To view and edit your uploaded media, select the "My Home" link as shown by the arrow. Next, in the left menu, as shown by the other arrow, select "My Media".


If a mod could move this explanation to the opening post as well, that would be appreciated.

[edit on 14/6/10 by CHA0S]

This is definitely very useful... good job. My question since you are being so helpful is, how do I make my video appear whole? I posted a couple up, but they seemed cropped or cut off. Im sure its something simple Im doing wrong, but would sure love a tip! Thanks ahead of time