Please note that I create these mini-tuts as an aide or help
for my fellow pcCrafter Hugster's & that I am only a HugClub member. 
I am not employed or affiliated with pcCrafter.com , MSN, or have any affiliation
with the websites posted below on this page.
Any information, graphics or excerpts quoted from the pcCrafter.com site 
or its forums, is for informational purposes only.


    Related - Want to know what software program to use info?
    For information about various Graphics, Crafting, Photo Editing
    or Scrapbooking software programs - which includes:
    Program sites, Price Comparison & Reviews sites,
    and Tutorials & Support for the programs - see this page on my Teas2Dine4.com website
    http://www.teas2dine4.com/4printsoftware.html

    Update: March 9, 2005 message posted in General Chat area
    pcCrafter Message Board Forums Rules
    I have copied the part regarding SigTags :

    SigTag Sizes:
    •SigTags should be no more than 50k – 70k in consideration of those who are on a slower internet connection. This helps the Message Board Pages to load quicker.
    •For example – this can be done by keeping the pixel height and width between 150 – 300 pixels and by optimizing your tag for web use.

     pcCrafter Copyright Policy on using HugWare in SigTags:
    •All SigTags using pcCrafter images must have the pcCrafter URL on the tag (www.pccrafter.com). When using non-HugWare images on a SigTag, on the pcCrafter Message Board, they may not display a URL. You may give the artist credit by displaying “images copyrighted by…” on the SigTag (if it is required).
    You cannot use any non-HugWare artwork in conjunction with HugWare clipart on the same SigTag. You may add embellishments or effects you create yourself.
    •To read more about the copyright policy regarding the use of HugWare please visit: 
    Copyright Policy
    http://pccrafter.com/support/policy_copyright.aspx
    SigTags
    http://pccrafter.com/support/policy_copyright.aspx#SigTags

    No Advertising or Soliciting:
    •There is no advertising on the pcCrafter Message Board. This will be strictly enforced. You may post URLs to your personal sites and businesses in your Message Board profile area or in the pcCrafter Marketplace. Ads or non-pcCrafter URLs are not to be seen in your posts, or on SigTags. 

    More FYI
    How to create the Copyright sign using your keyboard:
    press your "Alt" key and then using 
    the number pad (your numbers lock must be on) on your keyboard
    type 0169 and the result should look like this ©

    To create the Trademark symbol
    press your "Alt" key and then using
    the number pad (your numbers lock must be on) on your keyboard
    type 0153 and the result should look like this ™

    Find more about copyright on this page:
    http://www.teas2dine4.com/4copyrightinfo.html


    This page has links that will help you learn how to post your tag in
    your forum messages. It also has informational links to sites that will
    make sigtags for you, and links to tutorials on how to make them yourself, using various software programs you may own, and how to resize them for posting, uploading, and for viewing on the internet.

    And I have provided links for those who want to know 
    where they can post their sigtags, and or photos of their crafts, etc.
    I have included links to Free options.
    Where you post your "photos" of your craft projects, and or sig tags
    is often referred to as "your house"
    Note: while many on the PCCrafter forum boards, choose to join a group
    and open a  House at a MSN group - that is not the "only" option you have to upload and post your sigtags or photos, etc.

    The steps to follow to link to your sigtag and have it show up in forum messages is the same no matter where your sigtag is located online. 
    But it is important to remember that you have your sigtag online 
    and located at a site that you have permission to link to it.

    MSN hosted images or sigtags notes:
    **Please NOTE: some MSN group Houses require that you be a member in order to view images, and/or sigtags - if someone is NOT a member or logged into MSN groups, they MAY see a  Red X or broken image icon. 
    To view some images that are hosted on MSN servers, YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN to MSN. 
    You can either join MSN, or obtain a MSN / Microsoft Passport.
    You may also need to be a member of some groups. 
    Note: Your own computer keeps a cache of computer information about your own login status at various sites, if that time period has expired, for sites such as MSN, you will need to login to MSN again. Then to view images or sigtags within pcCrafter forum messages, "refresh your web page on the message board" and you should be able to see the image or sigtag.
    If you are not a member of some MSN groups or do NOT have the ability to login to MSN, You may NOT ever be able to see "Some" sigtags or images in some of the pcCrafter messageboard members who host or upload their photos or sigtags to a MSN group.
    You can obtain a Free MSN passport at:
    https://accountservices.passport.net/ppnetworkhome.srf?vv=320&lc=1033
    Obtain/Create a Free email account at a site such as Yahoo.com, to use just for your MSN passport login purposes, versus signing up for a MSN Hotmail account, which usually attracts alot of spam mail. 

    Also note that if any particular website or website server  where you post your images or sigtags is having server problems or has exceeded its monthly bandwidth allotment etc. - your images or sigtags may temporarily be unavailable for viewing


    Any information, graphics or excerpts quoted from the pcCraftersite
    or its forums, is for informational purposes only.
This mini tutorial is for help with, placing image signature tags, within your forum postings
**I list only internet link suggestions - there are of course many internet sites that may be better able to provide you with the tools you need.

First things first -
You must have a signature tag graphic posted somewhere on the internet that you are able
to Link to - Do NOT link to any graphic located online that does NOT specifically give you permission. (see: a bit about bandwidth) That is why you'll need a place to call your own (a house or a website location of your own) or link to a sigtag located at pccrafter's signature gallery

For this tutorial:
I will be using my own tag as the example: **this is a very old tag - I am now a DIVA!! 100 messageboard posts = Princess; 300 posts = Queen;  500 posts = Diva.

this  image tag is located on one of my own personal internet websites -
Below  is the web url that leads directly to that particular image
("4princessani1.gif")
http://marynpauln.com/4princessani1.gif
Once you have created or have an image, that you want to use as your tag, it must be uploaded or located to a place on the internet.

When the image is located on the internet, you need to have the web address that leads to that IMAGE, NOT to the web page where it is, But to that particular IMAGE itself.

How to find out the web address of that image:

Go to the webpage with the image, Right mouse click on the image, 
and you should see a menu:


Choose "Properties" from the menu
In the properties  screen will be a url or web address, 
that begins: http:// and 
then usually a very long series of letters and numbers 
(in my example, the webaddress for the image is very short). 
related note: other information about the image itself can be found from the properties screen.
Note the size of this image is 320 pixels wide by 59 pixels high
This web address is what leads to your "image", it is Important to remember 
that it is the location that you use to have your image show up in your forum messages.

If the html is really long, you can highlight it 
(scroll your mouse over it completely starting at the beginning from: http://
and copy it (press your control key and the letter "c", 
and that will copy the highlighted http:// address completely) 

Some people prefer and find it easier to shorten the very long web addresses
that often can appear like this:
**This is an example - not a real address**
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RwD9AoYWvD5H!NEbUsHgXNzTmci225rOhrmSoVb2iDs6k6
RvAsnqv0bewzTGYTHcGlWSZCPagPq!ceFaFKZprOxf8rMfqVZcF
soygT3lnSM/mysigtag2.jpg?dc=4675481234567

- you can do that by going to a website such as, tinyurl.com
click on link if you would like  to visit TinyURL now:
http://tinyurl.com
and take the "long" copied url and paste it into the Tinyurl box, and make it Tiny -
(to paste the url that is on your clipboard, press control key and letter "v")
the resulting now much shorter web address
**This is an example - not a real address**
http://tinyurl.com/j25p7
can now be copied and placed (pasted) between your image tags.

**Note** 2 other places to shorten a long url:
http://www.6URL.com or http://metamark.net/

The next step, once you are at the point of placing sig tag image 
in your pccrafter forum profile,
- take the copied web address and place it between the image tags
you would write/type the line out as 

[img]your pasted complete web address to the image is put between these tags here[/img]
my own is written as
[img]http://marynpauln.com/4princessani1.gif[/img]

make sure there are no spaces, and you must have the tags as they appear above 
the start tag is [img] and the closing tag is [/img]
Don't use ( ) - or { }  or <> , it has to be these brackets [ ] around the word - img
and it needs to have an open and a close tag,  the forward slash "/" closes the tag
so be sure to write the closing tag  - like this [/img]

Place this information within YOUR PCCrafter message board forum Profile information, 
Login to the Message Forum and click on "profile" and then your profile.

And under the "signature" section
on the signature line write it out as indicated

[img]thecompletewebaddressofimage[/img]
my own example:

Summary of  these steps
1. Post (upload) your image to a web page or site location on the internet.
2. Go to page that has your signature image, right click on the image itself
3. From menu that shows up, click on "properties"
4. Find from the properties screen the web address of the image, it would start out: http://
5. Highlight the entire url and copy it to your clipboard - make sure you get the complete address, if you miss a letter or number, the resulting address will not find your image on the internet.
6. Go to your message board forum profile at PC Crafter and edit the signature information
Place the complete web address between the image tags  - [img]  [/img] -
Make sure there areNo Spaces between the tags and or the word img within the brackets.
7.Make sure that  the image tags are open and closed at beginning and end of the web address,
[img]http://webaddresshere[/img]  your web address, must start with: http://
8.If you would like to post images other than your signature tag within a particular message posting, you would follow the same steps, find the web url address for the image,
then type the following line within your posting text:
[img]paste or type the web address of image here[/img]

Important reminders:
You need to Link to the "image", NOT to the web page that has  your image included on it,
Use the internet address url of the image, finding it from the "properties information" of the image itself.

Do NOT Link to an Image on a server or from a website that you do not have permission to link to. Follow instructions exactly from people who may design or post signature tags for you to use.
Example: If you have someone create a signature tag for you, and they post it on a page for you to pick up - or if you find a website that has "your paticular name" already made into a tag - You should not Link to that image found on someone elses website or server. You would need to save the image to your own computer, and then upload it to a place on the internet, that you do have permission to link directly to. 

If you upload your tag to the PCCrafter Signature Gallery, follow their instructions exactly for finding the url (web address) of that image *and then edit your forum profile, using that url*.
Signature Gallery:
http://pccrafter.com/community/signaturetaggallery.aspx

FREE Tags to snag and Tutorials to make your own

Remember - any sigtag found online or created for you - must be saved to your
own computer! And then from your computer you will upload that sigtag to a place
you can link to it. Right click on the sigtag image and "save as", to a folder or place
on your computer that you will remember where it is located, so that you can easily access
to upload to the site you need to place it for linking to it. **you can rename any image
that you save to your computer, if renaming it helps you remember it. Do not change image
formats - if the image is a .gif or a .jpg or a .bmp - save it in the same format it was created.
Be sure to read a bit about bandwidth..and why you should never link to a graphic on someone else's website or server.
 

Sites to pick up Free Signature tags:
Listing of many signature tag resources:
http://d21c.com/temp/pages2/enames.html

Wonderful tags2go! by Lisa
You'll find tags with Individual Names, 
Sayings such as Hello, Welcome, and More
http://public.fotki.com/LisaTags2Go/
Example:

http://public.fotki.com/LisaTags2Go/

Sampling of  More Individual websites that offer free tags:

You'll find wonderful artists who will create terrific tags for you at:
The Ladies Love Sigs
Find artists and their individual designs at:
http://theladieslovesigs.homestead.com/index.html
Then pick out a design, note the number/and/or name of sig
and order via their Delphi Forum 

**You may need to join Delphi forums, to post a request**
http://forums.delphiforums.com/lovesigs/start

Other Delphi Forums of interest to check out:
You may need to join Delphi forums and/or log in to access these sites
Moonlite Signatures
Simply Snagables
Signature Island
Signatures with Style
Sigs & Snags Plus lots more - Dixie's Designs

I had this LibMary tag created for me by a talented Lady that Loves sigs:
(*I worked in a library, and I love tea - perfect -huh!!)

this was created by Jeanne 
Many pcCrafter's use the tags created by Shiela


Learn how to create your own signature tags

Listing of resources for tutorials:
http://d21c.com/temp/pages2/enames.html#tute

All the stuff you'll want to learn using PaintShopPro
http://www.psplinks.com/content/Sig_Tags

Fly By Night
http://www.geocities.com/fbng_archives/sigtags.html

MadLassGrin
http://www.madlassgrin.co.uk/psigs.html

MyLadyBug Designs
http://myladybugdesigns.net/Public/TagTut.shtml 

Tutorials/Tips from PCCrafter Forum Member
Making Simple Sig Tags in Microsoft Picture It
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5094

MSN Group sig tag tutorials *using Paint Shop Pro (PSP)
Kat Korner
http://groups.msn.com/KatKorner/tutsbyourmembers.msnw
Examples:
Glitter Craze sig tag tutorial
http://groups.msn.com/KatKorner/glittercraze.msnw
Glitter Candy Kiss sig tag tutorial
http://groups.msn.com/KatKorner/candykisssig.msnw
*Blinkies Using Maxie's Templates*
http://groups.msn.com/KatKorner/blinkiesmaxiesway.msnw

* Try-It Mini Tuts *
http://groups.msn.com/KatKorner/tryitminituts.msnw

Want to Make your OWN tag with your own graphics, photos,  or clipart you have on your computer? 
Choose the image, import into a graphics program and using the text writing tool and your favorite font, write your name on it, save it, upload to your internet site and link to the "image". 

Please NOTE:
If you have many of the Creatables images from PCCrafter - you can copy and paste any image of your choice into a graphics program or a word processing program and add your name across the image or below it, etc. Use a font of your choice, then crop and/or size your image, making it small enough size to upload to your internet spot where you will be linking to it from.

That's all a sigtag is - an image with your name on it.

Most imaging graphics editing software, will have tools to help you resize and/or crop images.
Images are measured in pixels or inches.

For example the following image is from Angel Bears - Autumn by Laurie Furnell
I dragged from the the Hugbug Deluxe browser the image and dropped into my workspace of 
Adobe Photoshop Elements.  Check out Current fall 2004 offer on software - from Amazon
Then I used the text tool, applied the font "Scriptina" and wrote the wording "Hugs from Mary".
Then I "saved the image for the web" - using that function, allowed me to type in pixel numbers to resize it - and view how it would appear on the web.
This particular image is 139 pixels wide by 203 pixels high and I saved it as a .gif file and as a transparent image ( no white around it)


graphics  ©pccrafter.com

Hint:
Place your cursor over image, and right click on it. Then from menu, choose "properties", you should be able to see the pixel size of the image from that.

This background color placement is to demonstrate that the image is transparent or does not have any white around it.

See some of the other sigtags I have created and the programs I used to make them

Help with Images - what is a Gif, what is a Jpg,  how to resize, etc.

Animated images are saved as .gif files, .gif images are the only ones that can be saved as transparent. 
 .jpg images keep the best quality

Images can also be saved in .png .bmp and other image formats. For most internet images, choose either .gif or .jpg 

Info on Image Formats
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/image_formats.html

Articles/Info online of interest
Scaling Graphics for the Web
http://www.kumc.edu/webdev/graphics2/scaling.html

Sizing Graphics for the WEB
http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/DTG-Solutions/60-Sizes.html

Web Graphics for Beginners
http://www.iboost.com/build/graphics/tutorials/wgforbeg/743.htm

THUMBNAIL IMAGES 
Resizing, reducing and reformatting graphics
excerpt quoted from website article
A "Thumbnail" is a small graphic image that is usually used as a link to either a larger version of that image or to another web site. The image used for the Thumbnail needs to be reduced and resized to a smaller graphic for a quicker download of your web page. The viewer then has the option to click on the Thumbnail if they want to see the larger picture, which will take longer to download, or if they want to visit another site that it is linked to.

A common mistake among web page designers (new and experienced) is not "reducing the bytes" and actually "resizing" the original image into a Thumbnail picture. A lot of web designers will just change the WIDTH and HEIGHT attribute of the picture in their < IMG SRC > tags, often to a size that is not the exact ratio of the original. 
Read entire article - talks about resizing "Animated" graphics as well
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Campus/4642/thumbnail_bw.html
 

ImageMagik
Excerpt quoted from website - (download program for free)
Introduction to ImageMagick
ImageMagickTM, version 6.1.9-4, is a free software suite for the creation, modification and display of bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a large variety of formats. Images can be cropped, colors can be changed, various effects can be applied, images can be rotated and combined, and text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves can be added to images and stretched and rotated.
ImageMagick is free software: it is delivered with full source code and can be freely used, copied, modified and distributed. Its license is compatible with the GPL. It runs on all major operating systems.
http://www.imagemagick.org/

Using ImageMagik v.6 for resizing and more
http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/graphics/imagick6/


Put your images on a "reduction program"

Some sites limit the size of image uploads
 Here are some free sites for help with “Reduction” of your image sizes

GifBot
GIFBot is a free tool that compresses your GIF, JPEG, and animated GIF images. Decrease image file size without sacrificing image quality!
http://www.netmechanic.com/accelerate.htm
http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm

Image reduction tool
http://www.highpowergraphics.com/cruncher.html

DesignerWiz.com
.JPEG Image Byte Reduction Cruncher - Optimizer Generator
Make your .JPEG images load much faster by reducing the image size bytes.
.: Free .GIF Graphic Image Byte Reduction Cruncher Generator :.
http://tinyurl.com/3n3sh

Free Online GIF and JPEG Cruncher
http://www.animated.gifs.btinternet.co.uk/crunch/crunch.htm

Find:Compression and Optimization Software
Software for compressing and optimizing GIFs, JPEGs, animations, 
and other images for the Web.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/optimizationsoftware/

Listing of Free software to download (*some are free to try only)
Graphics > Graphic Manipulation > Image Resizing 
http://www.freewarehome.com/Graphics/Graphic_Manipulation/Image_Resizing_t.html


Related:
Article to read online - links and information about various software programs
Beyond Photoshop 
Drawing and image editing tools span a vast range of capabilities and prices
http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=490&topicid=2

These are links to graphics information and resources available on the Web and that can assist you in graphically enhancing a web page or web site.
http://www.callihan.com/weblinks/graphics.htm

Visit this website for information on
Animations, Graphics, Javascripts, resources, Free Software, Information, and more
http://www.bellsnwhistles.com/info.html


Do You want a sig tag that sparkles or moves - Animated Sig Tags?

Creating Animated GIFs:
Background Reading
http://cuip.net/~billings/AnimationWorkshop/background.html

Graphics Software 
Excerpt quoted from website:
GIF Animation Software for Windows and Macintosh
Software specifically for creating and optimizing GIF animations for the Web. Primarily freeware and shareware products available for download, many of these tools provide features for special effects, transitions, and advanced compression.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/gifanimationsoftware/

PSP (paint shop pro) is one of the most used software programs for making animated
sig tags or names / tags with "sparkles" and/or "glitter"  in them,  rotating text, or animating images, etc.
See the many PSP tutorials others have made - showing you step by step how to accomplish
these tasks using your own copy of PSP
http://www.psplinks.com/content/Animation.html

Online course available for PSP 8 owners  $25
Excerpt quoted from online class at LVS (Leader in Virtual Studies)
http://www.lvsonline.com/courses1a.shtml
Animating a Sig Tag can turn your design into a creative masterpiece.

The PSP 8 Animated Sig Tag class will help you to take a basic design that you have put together and add sparkles to your name, life into an inanimate object, and all around fun for your Sig Tags. By the end of class you will have developed a new understanding about animation and will have put that into making some of your best Sig Tags yet.

Prior knowledge of PSP is necessary, especially using the layer palette, so students should have taken the PSP 8 Apprentice course. The PSP 7 / PSP 8 Sig Tag class is a plus also, as that will have given you the general knowledge of what a Sig Tag is. 
http://www.lvsonline.com/courses1a.shtml#psp8sigtag2
(you also can download free the Latest version of PSP for a 60 day trial - be sure to check "System requirements" - as graphics software programs are memory hogs and to work properly they require lots of "memory" and fast processing speeds)
Related see all of LVS software tutorials
http://register.lvsonline.com/index.php?cPath=1
 

Microsoft Picture It or Digital Image Pro owners
Tutorial for 
Adding "Sparkles" using PictureIt or Digital Image Pro
http://www.marysgraphics.com/picit/ana2/sparkles/sparkles.html
Creating Animation
http://www.marysgraphics.com/picit/ana/animation1.html
How to Resize images
http://www.marysgraphics.com/picit/basic/resize.html
See all tutorials available
http://www.marysgraphics.com/picit.html

Animated GIF Tutorials 
http://www.grafx-design.com/anim_tut.html

Gif Animation Tools Listing
http://desktoppublishing.com/graphutilgifanim.html

Free gif animation tools

Gif Works – work online with gif graphics, nothing to download
http://www.gifworks.com

Microsoft GIF Animator
http://www.rocketdownload.com/details/inte/4282.htm

Free 3d Text maker **not animated
http://www.3dtextmaker.com/

At FlamingText you can create cool, custom images for FREE online, 
to use on your website, or in your e-mail, or as a sigtag.
http://www.flamingtext.com/
See the following examples of animated images I made using Flaming Text
Jumping4Joy  | ShakeItUpBaby! | Twist-n-Shout

More on Gif animation
http://www.tips-tricks.com/k_gifanimation.asp
See:
Excerpt quoted from website
A Smaller Gif
A Smaller GIF is a program for reducing the size of animated GIFs without affecting their appearance in any way. The recompressed animations are pixel-for-pixel equivalent to the original animations if fewer than 256 colours are used in the animation.
http://www.peda.com/smaller/


PLEASE TAKE NOTE: if you plan on placing your sig tag in a MSN Group house, and it is "animated" with sparkles or any type of "movement", you must remember to check the box "Do Not Resize" when uploading the sigtag or graphic to your house album. If you don't, the graphic will lose it's animation properties. And remember too, an animated graphic may take up more space, and most MSN albums are limited to 3mb of space, so if you want to place pictures of your crafts as well as any sigtags, it would be wise to limit animated tags to one or two to save space. 

Find information about Crafting,  Scrapbooking & Image Editing Software
on this page - part of my Printables Resource pages
http://teas2dine4.com/4printsoftware.html

Where can I put my sigtag or project 
and photo images - and be able to link to them?

There are online photo and or image website hosting services , available to link images from.

**Note: your own Internet Service Provider may provide as part of your service - free web space - to host web pages and/or images
be sure to check with them first to find out details of all their services

Here are some suggestions for Free Image hosting sites

Image Uploads
http://www.imageuploads.net/
Example FAQ
How does ImageUploads work?
Signup for an account or login if you already have an account and upload your images. It's as simple and easy as it gets.

Is direct/hot linking allowed on ImageUploads?
Yes direct or hot linking is allowed, especially convenient for message board, personal website or ebay auctions since our system outputs forum, html tag and url codes automatically.

Other sites to explore for posting sigtags, photos, and graphics/images

Picture trail
http://www.picturetrail.com/
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Many arts and crafts hobbyists use PictureTrail to host photos of their projects. This is a great way to facilitate interest and discussion with online friends about your arts and crafts interests.
http://www.picturetrail.com/webpages/photo_sharing_ideas.shtml

PhotoBucket.com
 provides free image hosting for Ebay, live journals, blogs, message boards, and online photo albums. Photobucket is reliable, fast and very simple to use. 
http://www.photobucket.com/
PhotoBucket tutorials
Ebay Auction Posting | Uploading with FTP | Upload publisher with Windows XP 
http://photobucket.com/tutorials/

FreeImage Hosting
Our free image hosting service is a perfect place to host your images for auction listings, message forums, blog posts and much more.
http://www.afreeimagehost.com/

Free picture hosting
http://freepicturehosting.com/

ImageHosting
http://www.imagehosting.us/

Image Shack
http://www.imageshack.us/

Image Uploading
http://www.imageuploading.com/

Picgoo
http://hosting.picgoo.com/

Village Photos
http://www.villagephotos.com/

ZippyImages
http://www.zippyimages.com/

And for those that want to post their sigtags or photos of their crafts at a MSN group "house"
See this page:
http://www.teas2dine4.com/msnhousehow2.html
It includes links to current pccrafter.com forum members who
have openings at their Houses for you to move into, and upload your
sig tags or photos, etc.

Want your very own website?

I own several websites, this particular one
marynpauln.com - is a site hosted for FREE at DotEasy.com - 
I use it for storing images and tutorials, etc. - but I don't even have a "home page" welcome created. Because the website doesn't get alot of traffic - having it hosted at doteasy is a good way for me to post pictures, sig tags etc. - and not have any annoying banner ads.

Buying the domain name was very easy, from doteasy and setting up was simple.

Here are some FREE sites to create web space all your own
*some of these will carry ads on your main pages but ads will not show when linking to your image or sigtag,
Free web space sites **
are NOT meant for Selling or high traffic pages
but are just fine for hosting your projects, directions/how-tos, family news, and photos etc.

http://geocities.yahoo.com

http://www.topcities.com/

http://www.bravenet.com/

http://www.freewebpage.org/

Free hosting for a website – no banner ads
http://free.hostdepartment.com/

http://www.doteasy.com

Search for more sites for hosting a website

Free web hosting search
http://www.freewebhostingsearch.com/

http://www.100-best-free-webspace.com/

http://www.absolutely-free-hosting.com/

If your free spot does not have an easy upload feature, you can use a FREE FTP utilility such as the one I use:
FTP Commander
http://www.internet-soft.com/ftpcomm.htm

Also see  other examples
Coffee Cup free ftp
http://www.tucows.com/preview/195147.html

Core FTP
http://www.coreftp.com/

Many PCCrafters choose to have a HOUSE to upload their projects and photos
You can obtain a House (or Create your own group) for free at MSN - where you can upload and store your images. You will have to join MSN groups, and then join the individual groups in order to post your images.
http://groups.msn.com/

Find all the how-to's via these posts on PCCrafters Instruction Junction
Pics and Siggy's with House at Thena's & Olivia's
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17503

Update: January 2005 - Olivia is closing her MSN group, so if you had
images hosted and linked to from that spot, you'll need to find a new home.
Read this message thread comments and suggestions for moving to a new MSN group:
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=57896
and there are other suggestions within this thread, other than Olivias
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17503

A tip for moving..if you have images posted anywhere on the net, right click on the image, and do a "save as" to your own harddrive, external drive, jump drive, floppy disk, etc. - put each image in one spot- the entire group of pictures in one spot, preferably in a folder all their own - name the folder something like mynetpics or something you will associate with those particular pictures, sigtags etc.

Then where ever you move to, if it is one of the photo / imaging suggestions I have listed or to a MSN group, you'll have one spot to go to on your computer and upload all the images again to the new site.  Or if you originally had all of your internet sigtags or crafting images, etc. in one folder or spot on your computer, then all you need to do, is simply upload that set of images to your new webhome.

If you are linking a sig tag or your house within your pccrafter forum messages - that led to your old home or image hosting spot, you will need to update your profile information on the pccrafter forum message board (Remember you need to login to the messageboard forum to edit or update your profile) Just follow the steps I suggest above, for finding the image properties, and posting those links within forum messages, etc. 


Related:
Putting your Sigtag in your Email messages

Inserting sig tags or images into Yahoo email messages
http://email.about.com/od/yahoomailtips/qt/et061105.htm

Use HTML in Your Yahoo! Mail Signature
http://email.about.com/cs/yahoomailtips/qt/et112602.htm

Adding Sigtags to email
http://www.ebinfoworld.com/sigtags2.htm

Tips on adding images to email programs
This is from Lilypie FAQ but contains useful information to apply to other programs
http://lilypie.com/FAQ_1.html
and/or
http://daisypath.com/FAQ_1.html

Adding sigtag image using Outlook Express
http://www.wildeoffice.com/HowTo/HT-EmailSign.htm
See other useful tutorials from wildeoffice.com
http://www.wildeoffice.com/HowTo/HT-Index.htm

Important Note:
This message is quoted from another forum, on posting images in email:
Remember, many of your recipients won't see it. As many viruses and trojans are passed along by graphics in email (malicious code can be added to the graphic tag), more and more users are instructing their email clients not to display graphics or HTML email. Ever received an email that appeared blank? Chances are it had an invisible 1-x-1 pixel graphic with malicious code attached. Viewing HTML email is the second most prevalent form by which viruses and trojans are passed.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg091054525989.html


Sig Tag help for the New & forgetful !!!
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21200

ANIMATED Sig Tags with Picture It!
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51534

Getting the WHITE OUT in different programs
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36269

Sig Tag Testing area
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=22
 
 
 

Please note: if you use any pcCrafter graphics in creating your
signature tag, the Message Forum Rules currently request that
you add the ©pccrafter.com information to the image
You can create the copyright symbol by using your Numbers keypad
on your computer. Be sure that your Numbers Lock is ON, then
hold down your Alt key and at the same time, using the
number pad keys, type 0169 and you should see: ©
or write c.  www.pccrafter.com  or c.  pccrafter.com
or just  www.pccrafer.com

REMEMBER!!
You must link to the "image" not to the page it is on, 
and the image must be located on the internet
and accessible without passwords or logins, 
in order for everyone to view it.

That means it can't be located on your computer, and not on a website that requires one to be a member in order to view the images. **members of some msn groups will be able to view your images, but non-members will not see them and will see a "red x"

Please note: if any website such as MSN, tinyurl, or pccrafter, etc. is having problems with their internet server - your image may not show up (and you will see a red x or broken image icon) and you will have to wait till the server problems are cleared, for your images to once again show up in the pccrafter forum messages.

Read a bit about Bandwidth.

Do You want to put a picture in your forum posting

If you would like to post any image you have available on the internet in your forum postings, the tool buttons are available to you at the top of the message of your own postings.
These tools only appear in messages that you author.

Remember - to resize any large photos, etc. before linking to them
within any forum postings. Large images may take a very long time
to load, and they can be difficult for those who use "dial-up" services
to view.

I have also created a separate page with information and screen
saves all about posting pictures in forum postings
http://www.teas2dine4.com/2addpics.html
**it repeats much of the same how-to info contained on this page
Note also:
**The globe button with the linkclip beneath it, is the website tag,
press it, and it automatically inserts the url tags
[ur][/url] - simply place the website address within those tags and
the website will be linkable from your message posting.
So if you want to just place a link to a website or to an image
this is a good way to do it, versus actually placing an image within
the message.


A bit about Bandwidth!

Remember you must post your images on your own website,
or a photo album spot that you joined and uploaded your own 
sigtag graphics or photos of your projects, or to your own
space at a MSN group site, etc. 
If you find a graphic or sigtag located somewhere else, that is NOT LOCATED OR PLACED IN YOUR  OWN SPACE on the
internet - and link to that graphic on that website - YOU ARE STEALING BANDWIDTH.

Here are excerpts quoted from online websites that will help you
understand about bandwidth:

What is bandwidth?
When you buy a web hosting plan, generally you have limited bandwith available for your website. Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred when your website is accessed. e.g. if you home page size is 10K ( k - kilobytes ) and it has an image of size 50k, then when your website home page is display, a total of 10k+50k=60k bandwidth is used. Some hostings provide unlimited bandwidth usage. The more the better. If your website has lot of traffic, then you can easily uses bandwidth in GigaBytes. 

More definitions  - What is bandwidth?

A measurement of the amount of data that can be transmitted over a network at any given time. The higher the network's bandwidth, the greater the volume of data that can be transmitted. 
www.oit.ohio-state.edu/glossary/

The rate at which you can send or receive information through your connection to the Internet. The range of transmission frequencies a network can use. The greater the bandwidth the more information that can be transferred over that network at one time. The term bandwidth also broadly includes throughput, meaning the amount of data sent 
www.ircbeginner.com/opvinfo/webglossary.html

Explanation of Stealing Bandwidth
http://www.phenomenalwomen.com/donteventhinkaboutit/

Bad use of Bandwidth by webmasters.
http://www.msu.edu/user/stakorch/bandwidth/

Bandwidth Conservation Society
http://paxar.bc.ca/bpc/Bandwidth_Stuff/default.html

Hot Linking - Bandwidth theft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_linking

WHAT IS HOTLINKING AND BANDWIDTH THEFT?
Read the information on this page
http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html

My own comments:
I have this website located on a server for FREE, and this particular site marynpauln.com - has a very low bandwidth allotment, because
I am getting it hosted for FREE. But I also know it receives very little
traffic and the amount of bandwidth needed to handle the traffic
currently is sufficient to handle it. If someone was to ever link
to a graphic on this site and have it accessed or loaded to another site or in a forum message on a regular basis my site would soon exceed it's monthly allotment of bandwidth and it would not be accessible till the next month, and their access or link to my images
or graphics would also stop. Now for other sites where I have my 2 major domains hosted, I PAY for My Allotment of Bandwidth to accomodate the expected amount of traffic.

For webmasters concerned about Hot Linking -
read the information on this page
Preventing hot linking of images
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml
also
The PCman's FREE Hot Linking Stopper
http://www.thepcmanwebsite.com/hot_linking_stopper.shtml
and/or
Prevent Hot Linking - Tutorials - Webmaster Stop
http://www.webmasterstop.com/124.html

The only exception to accessing/linking to images from sites that do not belong to you or that you have permission to link to is: 
You may link to images in the 
PCCrafter Signature Gallery for posting in PCCrafter Forum ONLY Messages. 

DO NOT LINK  to IMAGES from the PCCrafter Signature Gallery 
and post in OTHER message forums located on the internet that you may belong to. Do NOT LINK to IMAGES from the PCCrafter Signature Gallery in your email signatures. They are only to
be linked to in the PCCrafter messageboard forums.

See the resource links that I have for finding 
sites online to upload and keep your sigtags and/or photos , and that you CAN LINK to in your pccrafter forum or any message board postings.

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    This mini tutorial was created by

    July 2004,  [this page was updated January 2005] 
    As of August 04..I was NOW a QUEEN!!
    Queen LibMary - sounds nice, doesn't it?
    Here is my Fall '04 sigtag

    and now I am finally at the Top of the Posting Chain...
    I am A DIVA!!!

    Wondering how you can become a Diva?
    It will take 100 pccrafter message forum(s)
    message posts by you,
    to become a Princess, 300 to become a Queen and
    500 to become a Diva. So keep on  posting, and or testing your 
    sigtags in the sigtag testing forum and you'll be a Diva in no time!


    ** How I created some of my own tags - 
    I used my software program Xara Webstyle to create my Diva sig tag
    and I used Webstyle to create the heading graphic and divider bars on this page.
    To create my Fall 04 tag, I used Microsoft PictureIt Photo 2002, 
    (see Microsoft PictureIt  & Digital Image Pro products avaliable on Amazon)and graphics from the Sunflowers & Scarecrows Creatable by Susan Seals
    To create my Princess LibMary tag, I used Lettering Delights, FREE Lettering Alphabet - Jillustration, that you can obtain by signing up for the LD Newsletter at Lettering Delights.com
    http://www.letteringdelights.com/newsletter_subscribe.lasso
    You'll need the Lettering Delights software program to work with the alphabets which are separate letter images, and not Fonts, (but Lettering Delights does offer fonts as well - you'll get 7 FREE fonts along with the Free Jillustration Alphabet when you subscribe to newsletter). You can find out all you need to know by exploring the LetteringDelights site.
    After I created the basic Princess LibMary image, I used another couple of programs to enhance it, I used Microsoft Picture It Photo 2002, to add the crown graphic images that I had, then I took that image to PSP 8  (current version for sale is version 9)and duplicated the image 3 times, added the sparkles via the tube tool,  then used Animation Shop (included with PSP 8) and created the final image, combining the 3.
    My winter tag below - I made with an image from the Winter in the Garden creatable by Carol Hahm
    and my software program Adobe Photoshop Elements "2" (current edition is 3) and I wrote  the text within the image using the FREE Scriptina font. (to find info about downloading and installing fonts - see this page I created with resource links for help with  downloading stuff from the internet.) I really like Photoshop Elements for sizing my graphics for the internet.  Many times I will create a composite image using MS PictureIt, save it to a folder on my Hugbug Deluxe Browser, then drag (holding down the shift key) and drop that image graphic into the workspace of Photoshop Elements, and use the "save for web" feature (under the "file" drop down menu) and resize the image and keep it transparent, or have the white out in it. If I need to add white to any transparent parts, such as in snow, or as in the mirror part of this image - I use the fill tool of Photoshop Elements. 

    graphics  ©pccrafter.com
    I also recently used Photoshop Elements 2, to create this tag with my picture in it. I had to learn how to resize each part (each graphic) separately and then layered them, using layering effects. 

    graphics used [except for photo] ©pccrafter.com
    I used graphics from the Cardable  Tea Party by Carol Halm

    Please note: if you use any pcCrafter graphics in creating your
    signature tag, the message forum rules currently request that
    you add the ©pccrafter.com information to the image
    You can create the copyright symbol by using your Numbers keypad
    on your computer. Be sure that your Numbers Lock is ON, then
    hold down your Alt key and at the same time, using the
    number pad keys, type 0169 and you should see:
    ©
    or write c.  www.pccrafter.com  or c.  pccrafter.com
    or just  www.pccrafer.com

    Related:
    To find information about programs used to create
    signature tags and/or use with your graphics images
    see my software resources page with price comparisons,
    tutorial links and more on
    http://www.teas2dine4.com/4printsoftware.html

    Summary of  the steps for placing your sigtags in forum messages
    1. Post (upload) your image to a web page or site location on the internet.
    2. Go to page that has your signature image, right click on the image itself
    3. From menu that shows up, click on "properties"
    4. Find from the properties screen the web address of the image, it would start out: http://
    5. Highlight the entire url and copy it to your clipboard - make sure you get the complete address, if you miss a letter or number, the resulting address will not find your image on the internet.
    6. Go to your message board forum profile at PC Crafter and edit the signature information

    Place the complete web address between the image tags  - [img]  [/img] 
    Make sure there areNo Spaces between the tags and or the word img within the brackets.

    7.Make sure that  the image tags are open and closed at beginning and end of the web address,
    [img]http://webaddresshere[/img]  your web address, must start with: http://

    8.If you would like to post images other than your signature tag within a particular message posting, you would follow the same steps, find the web url address for the image,
    then type the following line within your posting text:
    [img]paste or type the web address of image here[/img]


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