Weird Question

[emroul]

Hey,

this is a weird question, but how do you get the permanent picture of a grey, or any other parrot for that matter, on the side of all your threads in the forum? (i.e., "birdgirl" has the african grey pic on the side of left side of her posts.) It probably isn't brain surgery, but I can't figure it out! lol

[emroul]

Hey I just figured it out.. LOL nevermind!

['too crazy]

No, don't nevermind! I don't know how. Brain surgury would be easier for me than figuring out this computer! lol

[birdygirl]

Okay choose the picture you want. Copy and paste it into paint. Go to image. Click on image and a some options should come dow. Click on stretch and skew. Strech the picture 50 by 50. I am pretty sure that works.

[birdygirl]

Then save it as (not on a disk) a jpeg. Then yopu can upload it here. By going to your profile.

['too crazy]

Now all I have to do is get a picture :0)

[Mrs.Birdy]

If you want to, you can go to Google.com/images and choose a generic photo until you get a good one of your actual bird. That is what I did and I will eventually get a good one of my own bird.

[emroul]

Yeah, I just put up my pik of kit on here... cool huh lol

['too crazy]

I got my picture, I cut and pasted it, I saved it but I don't know where to put it once I get to my profile. Trust me, I'm not this dense when it comes to my birds!! lol

[birdygirl]

Ok what you do. Click user cp. Then go to edit options. At the bottom of that page there is a change avatar button. It may say upload avatar. But I believe it says change avatar. click on that button and there is a circle that says yes. Click that. Then go to the part that says upload an avatar from your computer. Click browse. You should be able to find your avatar from that.

[jackie]

don't feel bad, i'm a brunette and i still don't get it. lol...everytime people have asked how to do it, i've tried to do it again, but it never works. ow i finally got it to work, but the picture of jake i have isn't working....it sats it's too big even though it's only 50 by 50. ?

[emroul]

I don't really know what I did, all I know is it's working for me now so I guess that's all that matters right?

[Jenny]

I have brown hair-not blonde- but I still can't figure out the avatars! I don't have "paint" or whatever it's called, I don't know how to copy or paste...and I've tried multiple times but still haven't figured it out! Oh well... :)

[emroul]

Alright, my fiance decided to give a detailed tutorial (he's a computer nerd).

emroul
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, I will try to make this as painless as possible.

CREATING THE IMAGE:
I will be using "Adobe Photoshop 7.0". I know not many people have this program, but it is the most powerful image editing software I know of.

You can download it here (big download 160+ megs):
http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jhtml#product=39

I will also include a tutorial for "Paint", a Microsoft Windows (all versions) program, which is the default image editor.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL:
What you want to do is find a picture of any size and place it on your desktop.

File --> Open:

Find the desktop folder and open the image you wanted to use.
(I have rattlesnakes and I'm doing my sidewinder)

http://www.fototime.com/{0E005C6B-D688-466B-BDBA-BB1461D19E14}/picture.JPG

Okay, go to: File --> Save For Web:

http://www.fototime.com/{58AC090D-80BB-43AC-BD2C-EEBDDDB40283}/picture.JPG

It will bring up a window. On the right there are some settings. Change the type to JPEG and the quality to 70. Look at the image below for a reference.

http://www.fototime.com/{464C0AAA-57A0-4EEE-9A2A-7EA60F15AF22}/picture.JPG

WHEN YOU SAVE IT RENAME IT TO AVATAR IN THE SAVE WINDOW OR IT WILL ERASE YOUR ORIGINAL PICTURE! (LOOK AT PIC BELOW)

http://www.fototime.com/{B84A1A0B-BFD1-41FA-ABFB-DDDE6FFB306B}/picture.JPG

Close the original picture.

Go to: File --> Open:
Find the "avatar" image on the desktop and open it. It looks exactly the same as the original don't worry.

Go to: Image --> Image Size:
Make sure the constrain proportions box is checked.
Change the width to 50.
Look at picture.

http://www.fototime.com/{03513676-A430-4E39-8486-7C184A2F2170}/picture.JPG

Click ok.

Now the image is very small (an avatar).

http://www.fototime.com/{70A86E05-3335-40AE-93E1-E0B8DECFE3FA}/picture.JPG

Go to: File --> Save For Web:
The settings should stay the same (JPEG and quality 70) and save it on the desktop as avatar. It will ask you (if done correctly) to replace the file. Click yes. It is not replacing the original picture.

Click ok, yes and everything else it says to do.

Close photoshop (you've made your avatar).

MICROSOFT PAINT:
Basically it folllows the above one but a little simpler.
1. Move original image to desktop.
2. Start --> Run: When box appears type "mspaint" w/out the " ".
(I don't even have it installed, grr...)
Okay, it's installed, just for you...
3. Open the original image on the desktop.
4. File --> Save as: Type the filename "avatar" and the file type as a JPEG.
You are working with the new image now so you don't have to re-open it.
Now, on the bottom right of the picture is a little square. Drag that to the right and down to expand your picture size. Now, there is a selection tool. It looks like a box with ants marching in a line. Select that tool and drag a box around your image starting from the right bottom corner of your picture (it will only work if you have that white barrier around your picture which was from expanding the picture i told you about earlier) and then finish at the upper left corner. Now that that is selected, select the image menu and then select attributes. In the width box type 50. Press ok. Now, this is going to mess up your image. You have to see that that is how small 50 pixels is. Press edit, undo. You are now back to normal and the picture is not selected. Now do the ants box and select the image again. Now, this time on the bottom right corner of your selection, drag that up and left until you think it hits the 50 pixel barrier. Yes, it is a lot of work to get it right, but thats what you get free from Microsoft Windows and Bill Gates. You will need to do the image --> attributes a lot until you get it right. After the width is dont, on the bottom of the white stuff is a little square (the middle and left ones work only) and drag that up to the bottom of your picture and you're set. Save the image on the desktop as avatar in the JPEG file format. Exit all that stuff and you're done. I suggest for all those people with high speed internet OR about 200.00 to download photoshop or go buy it. You can purchase the full version online to download or ship to your house.

Next.

UPLOADING THE AVATAR:
At the top of the page is a "user cp" button click on it.

http://www.fototime.com/{89ED0B5B-76F2-48E8-95E7-8D9B7617109E}/picture.JPG

Let it load. Click the "edit options" link.

http://www.fototime.com/{55660DCB-2D9E-4CE0-BB35-C2580E977E87}/picture.JPG

At the bottom of the page is a change avatar (or upload avatar for those who dont have one yet, i think). Click on it.

http://www.fototime.com/{1653F91B-9E7D-4C06-AB05-6771A67AEEE2}/picture.JPG

You see this?
http://www.fototime.com/{DC4A5BE4-855D-4A3F-8C1C-A0C1B0BB4D58}/picture.JPG

Good. Now click the browse button (oops i forgot my pink arrow, my bad)

[img]http://www.fototime.com/{CCA37EBC-B4D8-402E-857D-2C7F31D72740}/picture.JPG[img]

Find the avatar.jpg on the desktop. Press upload or ok or yes or whatever it says.

It's uploaded. Click the save preferences button. Or save changes. SAVE IT.

If you have any questions, e-mail me at: viridix@cox.net.

Good luck.

[emroul]

Here is the last image that doesn't work...

http://www.fototime.com/{CCA37EBC-B4D8-402E-857D-2C7F31D72740}/picture.JPG

[JSimko]

If anyone has a picture that they cannot shrink to the proper size you can send it to me at JSimko@parrot.com and I will shrink it and send it back to you. Just don't send it to me before 3PM, because I get so much junk mail that every morning my inbox is full and I have to empty it.