seriously, how to post a pic

I'm sorry, but I've spent hours upon hours on several occasions with irfanview and smugmug and STILL can't make either work. Does anyone have an easier explanation of just what I'm supposed to click? I believe I've resized the photos in two different downloads of irfanview. Sorry to be so dumb, but I really just don't get it.
You can see i need simplicity. and step by step. i've looked at the thread "How to post a pic" at least fifty times and think i'm following all the steps including "fire up" Irfanview

when you want to post a picture, it is best to do so from a web based photo service. On smugmug, once you have the image you want to post displayed you would click on the "share" button, select get a link and then copy the URL of the size photo you would like to post

you then use the IMG button, that you see in the above the area where you type when you initiate a post (looks like mtns and a sun in a square). The image button let's you specify an Internet address (URL) to identify the image you want to appear by pasting the URL you copied into the script prompt that pops up. The script prompt just puts the correct html tags around the url of your photo so it will "show"

It would look like the below when done (without the spaces between the tags and URL)



and display your image like this.



does that help?

Check to make certain the Smug Mug gallery you have the picture in is set up to allow sharing.

Log in to your account

Go to your home page of galleries.

Click on the customize button at the bottom of the gallery thumbnail picture for the gallery that holds the picture you want to post.

This will take you to a set up screen.

Scroll down to the section marked ÔÇÿSocialÔÇÖ

In that section the third item ÔÇÿEasy sharingÔÇÖ must be marked Yes.
This allows smug mug to share your pictures out to the internet and forums like this.

thanx

Thanx, you guys. I'll start exploring your ideas and see if I can learn something. i appreciate your help.

Gene:

Let me give you a couple of tips; I had a bit of learning curve, too. I'll assume you're using Explorer. This is just my humble way of doing it, photo posting for idiots, but it works for me:

1. After I have a thread up in the Forum and the reply box open, I minimize the page
2. then I go into Smugmug and make sure I'm logged in; it can look like you're logged in, but you're not.
3. click on the gallery that your pic is in
4. click on the pic you want to post
5. click on the "share" bar at the top of the picture box
6. a little box will drop down; click on "get a link"
7. a big box will open; in the section "Direct Photo Links", click on the script to the right of "medium"
8. go back to your Forum page and click on the tiny picture box above the text, the one with the sun over the mountains
9. here's where it gets tricky: you may get a skinny yellow bar above the Forum box that asks if it's OK to "temporarily allow scripted windows". If so, click on the yellow bar. Another box will open. Click on "Temporarily allow scripted windows".
10. now go back and click on the picture box again
11. another box will pop up, the "Explorer user prompt". You will see a field, and inside it, in blue, http something. Now move your curser to that blue http thing and delete it. I just go to the immediate right of it with the cursor, backspace once, and it will go away.
12. now you have to very careful; KEEPING YOUR CURSER INSIDE THE HORIZONTAL FIELD WHERE THE HTTP THING WAS, right click your mouse. An option box will drop down; click on "paste"
13.click on "OK" in the Explorer user prompt box. You will now see the text representing the script of your picture, inside the Forum box.
14.Finish your post wording, and submit your reply. Do not preview your post.
15.If the picture is wrongly positioned in your post, you can just move your text around it. Don't mess with the picture.

Hope this helps a bit. What I did to learn it, was bring in a teen age graphic arts student who is an imaging wizard. He dumbed it down for me and I just took notes. It took him just a few minutes to figure out how Smugmug works. I felt better when he commented that some aspects of digital imaging are weird.