University Computer Help Desk

Before You Begin

These instructions explain how to add an image from an external location, such as Datastore or the Internet, to a post on your personal blog. Images added in this way appear on your blog posts just like images you uploaded to the blog server.

Use these instructions if the picture file you want to add is currently on a website or in the "web" folder on your personal Datastore share. These instructions require you to know the web address (URL) of the image you want to add.

Adding external images like this is a good way of dealing with the quota limit on your personal blog. If you have reached the quota limit on your blog, you can continue adding images to your blog posts by storing the images elsewhere, such as in the "web" folder on your Datastore share.

Images in Your Web Folder on Datastore

You have a "web" folder in your personal Datastore share. Images placed in your "web" folder can be added to your personal blog as external images.

To put an image in the "web" folder on your Datastore share, do the following:

1. Map network drives to your personal share on Datastore, or access your Datastore through the WebVPN interface.
2. Within your Datastore share, double-click on your "web" folder.
3. Copy an image files you want into your "web" folder.
   • We recommend using images with only lower-case letters and no spaces.
4. To verify the web address (URL) of your image file(s), try viewing them on the Web in your web browser.
   • Open your web browser and go to: http://www.ilstu.edu/~yourULID/image.abc (where image.abc is the name of the image file).

For example, Reggie Redbird, whose ULID is rrredbi, copies an image named go-redbirds.jpg into his "web" folder on Datastore.To add this image to a post on his personal blog, he would need to use the URL, http://www.ilstu.edu/~rrredbi/go-redbirds.jpg.

For more info about how to Datastore, including how to connect, refer to:

• 1336: Overview of Datastore

Images on the Internet

You can also add images from the Internet to posts on your personal blog.

To determine the web address (URL) of an image on the Internet, do the following:

• In Firefox, right-click on the image and click View Image.
• In Internet Explorer, right-click on the image and click Properties.
• In Safari, right-click on the image and click Open Image in New Tab.
• In Chrome, right-click on the image and click Open Image in New Tab.

Be aware that many images on the Internet are protected by copyright. Some images are licensed in such a way that they can be used so long as the source is credited. Others are freely usable by anyone. Before you add an image to your blog, you should consider whether or not your actions are lawful.

You should also note that if you are not actually hosting images you find on the Internet, your links to those images may be broken at any time. Whenever the host decides to move or delete the external image, it will no longer appear on your blog.

Add an External Image to Your Personal Blog

To add an external picture to your personal blog, do the following:

1. Go to http://my.ilstu.edu/.
2. Click Login to My Blog.
3. Enter your ULID and password, and click Login.
4. Do one of the following:
   
   • Create a new post. Refer to 1517: How to add a post to your personal blog.
   • Edit an existing post. Refer to 1520: How to edit a post on your personal blog.
5. Click your cursor in the spot where you want to add an image.
6. Click the little, square icon next to Add Media above the text box. (If you hold your mouse over the little, square icon, you will see a tool tip that says, Add an Image.)
7. The Add an Image window appears. Click the From URL link to add the web address (URL) for the image file you want to add to your blog post.
8. Enter the web address (URL) of the image.
   • See the information above for steps on determining the URL for an external image.
9. Once you have added a URL for the image, you can make some choices about your image.
   
   • Your image can be given a title.
   • Add a caption for your image if you would like.
   • Choose an alignment for your image. This defines where your image will appear in relation to the text in your post.
   • You can turn your image into a link by adding a web address to the box labeled Link URL. This allows your visitors to click on the image to visit the website you've entered into the Link URL box.
10. Click Insert to Post to add the image to your post.
11. Click Preview to see what your image looks like on your blog post. On your actual blog post, it will look slightly different than it appears in the post editor.

Adjust the Appearance of Your Image

After you've added an image to a post, you may find that it doesn't look exactly the way you want. You can adjust the appearance of your image, and you may find you need to play around with the image before you are satisfied with it.

To adjust the appearance of an image in a post, do the following:

1. Select the image inside the post editor box.
2. When you select the image, two icons will appear on top of it.
   • The red icon with a line through it is used to delete the image from the post.
   • The blue icon is used to edit the image as it appears in your post.
3. Click the blue icon to edit the image as it appears in your post.
4. Use the Size column to tweak the size of your image as it appears in your post. Doing this does not actually alter the size of the stored image. If you use this edit feature multiple times, each time you will see the image is set to 100%. This is because each time you edit the image size, you are doing so relative to the image's current size as it appears in the post (not its actual size).
5. You can also alter the image alignment if necessary (i.e. left, right, center, etc.).
6. When you are done, click Update.
7. Click Preview to see how your image looks now that you've made adjustments to it. You may need to repeat this process to fine tune its appearance.