How to: add images from your computer

If you've already logged in to batgung.com, you're ready to upload photos (the software we use calls them images) from your computer to this site.

Some reminders first:

  • Please only upload photos that are your own, or that are public domain, or where the copyright has expired. In all other cases, please just provide a reference to the photo, rather than uploading the photo and breaking copyright.
  • The maximum resolution for photos is 2400 x 1600.

On with the upload - you can go directly to the Create Image page, or you can find it on the left of the page, near the bottom. Scroll down until you see 'Create content', then a few lines below that click on the 'Image' link.

On the new screen you'll need to fill these two fields:

  • Title: A brief description of the photo
  • Image: Browse to the photo file on your hard disk that you want to upload

You could click 'Submit' now to upload the photo, but if you take some time to fill in the other fields, you'll help other people find it later. Here are the optional fields:

  • Image galleries: If you know which gallery the photo belongs to, choose it here. If you're not sure, you can always put it in the gallery for the decade it was taken, eg '1960s Hong Kong'.
  • Tags: A comma-separated list of words that describe the photo. eg 'tram', 'market', etc. Tags are a good way to group together related photos. (Learn more about tags).
  • Body: Any notes or other information you'd like to add to describe the photo.
  • Date picture taken: This is in format YYYY-MM-DD. If you're not sure the exact date, just choose the Jan 1st of the nearest year, or nearest decade. eg for an old photo you think was taken in the 1910's, you'd enter 1910-01-01
  • Places shown in this photo: This will let people search for your photos by its location. Just type a few characters of the name of the place you can see, wait a moment, and you'll see a list of matching places. eg type hsb and see what appears. Click on the one you want to add it to this photo. There is space for two new places initially, but if you need more just click the 'add another item' button.

    If there isn't any match for the place name you type, maybe it was created under a different name? Different people may use different abbreviations for the same place. You can check the map of places first to see if that's the case.

    And of course if the place you're thinking of still isn't shown (though together we've created over 900 already!), it's easy to add a new place.

Click 'Submit' to upload and save the image.

Next you'll probably want to insert the photo in a comment or forum post.

If you find any mistakes, or anything isn't clear, please leave a message below.

Which category to use for odd pictures?

I want to upload some pictures to Batgung website and later refer to them in my text. They do not, however, belong to any of the categories such as "Shop House". Should I use "Others"?  Would it mess up your classification as I am sure you dont want thousands of pictures under "Others"?

Otherwise, can I simply include pictures in my text without first uploading them to the Batgung Image Data Base? Do I just cut and paste then?

Sorry - I am not intuitive when it comes to software.

re: Which category to use?

Thanks for checking - 'Others' will be fine. If you've uploaded say 10 or more that are all related and you think deserve their own gallery, just let us know and we can create a new gallery for you.

Unfortunately cut & paste won't work, but there is a shortcut you can use: Instead of uploading the photo first, you can go straight to the 'insert the photo' step. After you click the camera icon, and the new window pops up asking you for the photo, look in the grey bar at the top of the new window. You should see a button marked "Upload". You can click that to upload the new photo, and then once it is finished uploading you can insert it immediately.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

MrB

Uploading problem

I repeatedly received this error message "Places shown in this photo: found no valid post with that title"

What did I do wrong?

re: Uploading problem

I had exactly the same problem yesterday, let's see if the same solution applies.

I was uploading this photo. When I got to the 'Places shown...' box, I typed in '313' and waited for it to show me the full name of the place, '#313-315 Shanghai Street, Yaumati [nid:2168]'. BUT, I forgot to click the full name, so the 'Places shown ...' still showed '313'.

When I tried to save the new photo I got the error message you mentioned. (Because of course there is no post on the website titled '313'). I went back to the 'Places shown ...' box, typed '313', clicked on the full name when it appeared, and then I could save the photo ok.

Does that work for you too?

Significance of "Places Shown" box?

It seems my problem stems from trying to type into the "Places Shown" box. I managed to upload the picture only if I leave the box blank. Should I be typing in the same text as the title? What purpose does this label serve?

thanks, sophia

re: Significance of "Places Shown" box

A 'Place' on this website is a single location in Hong Kong, that you, I or someone else has created an entry for. (Down under "Create content' in the left hand menu, one of the options is to create a 'Place')

eg if you look back to the first image you uploaded, you'll see the 'Places Shown' box has been filled in with '#1 Queen's Road West, Possession Street, Sheungwan', so there is now a link to that place, that T created. That does a few things:

  • When someone looks at your image, they see a link to the Place. In some cases the Place will have more information describing it, so if they want to know more about what's shown in the photo, they can check the Place.
  • On the other hand if someone views the '#1 Queen's Road West, Possession Street, Sheungwan' Place, they can see your photo.
  • And for people who like maps, they can now search for your photo via a map.

We've only just added the Places - Images link, so it may be hard to see the benefits just yet. I hope it will become clearer as we add more of each. eg last night I uploaded a bunch of photos of shophouses. T had already created the places, so it was easy for me to just upload them and link them by filling in the 'Places Shown' box. eg T had created the Place for 187 Apliu Street, if you look at it you can see all the photos listed on it, without T having to do any edits to it.

Ok, got a bit carried away! Short story: The 'Places Shown' is optional, but using it helps link related information together, making it easier for other readers to find later.

Creation Sequence - place, image, text with ref to image

I feel like I am seeking help from an IT helpdesk.. and you are most patient. Thank you. So the correct sequence is to first create PLACE (if it is not on the drop box list already), then upload the IMAGE (refering to the PLACE)  and finally write TEXT that refers to the image.

For now, I will skip creating PLACE as it requires messing with markers and I am hopelessly bad with directions and maps.

Place > Image > Text

Yes, ideally that's the right order. Not the end of the world if it doesn't turn out that way though.