The nano.org project is currently in early beta testing. However, the features described below are already in effect. Read more about the beta test here.

A previous help page covered the basics of posting a purely textual contribution into a discussion thread. This page explains how to create more advanced posts, including graphical images.
In order for images to appear in a user's post, those images must be uploaded to the nano.org database during the process of composing the post. There are two alternative methods: the user can create a file version of the image in question on her computer, and then simply upload this file, or the user can directly paste an image into a special region of the nano.org post composition page.

Method 1: Uploading a previously composed image file
Suppose that the user has an image, previously saved on her own computer, that she wishes to appear on in her post. The user begins to compose the post as usual, entering any text that is to precede the image:

Then, at the point where the image is to appear, the user employs the buttons immediately below the posting box to first Select and then Upload the image file. Suitable formats are JPEG (JPG), GIF or PNG. An image in another format should be converted to one of these formats prior to uploading.

This will cause the page to reload, and a new line of text will have appeared in the text box where the post is being composed. This is a special code line that marks the place where the image will appear - the user should not edit this line.

Finally, the user may add some further text, to complete the post:

Having finished the post, the user clicks the Preview button. At Preview stage, the user will see how the complete post will appear, with the image appearing in place. If there is anything unsatisfactory about the post, the user can opt to go back and continue working on it - if the image needs to be replaced, the user should delete the special code line and repeat the steps for uploading a new image.

Method 2: Direct pasting of an image
The previous method has the drawback that a user must create a file version of the image in question before uploading it. Often it is more convenient to take a snap shot of an image displayed on the user's screen (perhaps part of some open document or web page) and paste this image directly into the nano.org system. This is possible, providing that the user has java installed on her system (many computers will have java installed by default - for users who do not have it, there is a link available from our 3rd party software page).

As in the Method 1 example above, the user would start writing the post and pause at the point where the image is to appear. Then the user should copy the image into the systems "clipboard" - this can be done in many ways, for example often applications allow users to right-click an image and select "copy" from the contextual menu that appears (this is the case for Internet Explorer, and for Adobe Acrobat Reader, for example). However, there is some variability in the way that applications save images onto the clipboard when this "right-click" method is used. An alternative, very powerful and flexible route is to simply take a "snap shot" of any desired portion of the screen - our software page provides a link to free 3rd party Windows software which enables this, and explains how to access the built-in facility on a mac. The image below shows this snap shot process:

Once the desired image has been copied, the user would simply paste it into the Image Manager on the posting page. First the manager must be loaded - this is accomplished simply by clicking the "Pasting Manager" on the right, as shown in the figure below. Note that there may be a delay of several seconds when this button is clicked, as the user's browser activates the java environment for the first time. Also note that the user may be asked to explicitly confirm that the image manager has permission to run.

Once loaded, the Image Manager appears lower down the webpage. Using the manager requires only two clicks: first the user clicks "Paste" to copy the image from the clipboard to the manager, and then she clicks "Upload" to have the image uploaded to nano.org. There may be a pause of several seconds while the image is uploaded (longer, on a modem connection), then a message will appear confirming successful upload. At this moment, a line of code will have appeared in the user's post marking where the image will appear, just as outlined in Method 1 above.

If, at the Preview stage, the image fails to appear correctly, then the user should go back and either (a) use the image manager again, but this time copying the original image via a different route (the "snap shot" approach is robust), or (b) simply resort to using Method 1, as described above. Regrettably, the very wide range of behaviors of the system clipboard across different platforms and applications means that sometimes the Image Manager will fail and Method 1 must be resorted to. However, if an image appears successfully at preview then the process has succeeded!