How to post a chart

[wrangler]

Found this by eliteG under the help thread and wanted to put it here to help with anybody who has trouble posting charts. I.ve only had a computer for two years and got one when I decided to learn the stock market and still have trouble with a lot of things on it.
eliteG, hope you don't mind me putting it here. Thought it would benefit more here for those who has trouble like I have had and they will found the help in the chart section. Will try to post a chart after coffee break.

Re: Attachment
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2005, 02:50:01 PM »   

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hey rick hope this helps, (i know you probably know most of this.. but just in case)

**saving an image** - if you have a chartup on the screen that you want(or any image) you can capture it with 1) a capture utility or 2) by pressing the printscreen key on your keyoard.  When you press the printscreen key on your keyboard it saves the image to the clipboard.  You then open up paint or some other image editing program and paste it in there.  You can paste by holding the ctrl key down and pressing V at the same time...or look in the Edit tab.  Save the image and remember where this is!  Oh save as a.jpg or .gif  You cannot post an image that is bigger than 150 kb i believe.

**to post image** - When you are writing a post in 3stocks there is a button underneath the text editor called Additional Options...you hit that and then hit browse to locate the chart saved on your computer.  If you want to attach more, hit the more attachments button.

Thats what I do.

[wrangler]

 Thank you eliteG, I can now post images along with my threads.
Will applaud when I bring you're thread up for it.

[tommyt]

I'm attempting to post a chart, I should have learned this a long time ago...sorry

[Quasi]

Hi All

Thought I would add some thoughts here on saving screen shots and posting charts.  Hope it helps some of you who are having troubles or just looking for a better mouse trap.

Yes it's easiest to grab images off the web because you are looking at a HTML coded page with your browser.  Its already a whole bunch of separate images and text, the browser just displays them all together nicely.  But it does allow you to easily grab a separate image, I find Netscape or Firefox do it best, just right click and select view or save as file, IE is a little more combersome and one reason I don't use it, (you have to pull up the image properties and then copy the image URL, then pull that one up and save it, a few extra steps).

With respect to some programs like MetaStocks,  its not HTML and thus no separate file of the image, the whole screen is the output of the program.  So a screenshot is your only choice, but with the standard windows screenshot method you get the whole desktop, when all you really want is the chart.  You can save it and then crop it later but that's extra work,  try out the following,  I think you will like it.

Over the last few years I have had to use various printscreen options to post charts to boards.  Been thru all the windows versions etc etc.  I then came across a little free shareware program called Gadwin Printscreen and I've stopped looking for anything better.  It has lots of options for configuration, simple, user friendly and it does it all in a way that just works great for the job of posting screenshots.

Also great for grabbing just the chart out of the Stockcharts Java annotation tool, especially for those who are not extra members and thus can't save the chart, (unless you screen shot the whole desktop).

Direct link to the Gadwin info and download page  http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

- launches with a user selectable hot key
- allows you to preview image before writing the file, just in case it's not exactly what you want, cancel and grab it again, no wasted time
- user selectable capture area, I always use the rectangular area option, you just click and drag out a box of what you want, also pops up a little zoom window so you can get the corners just exactly where you want them.  (wouldn't let me screen shot the zoom window so just trust me on this one, great feature)
- gives you the option to specify where to save the file and give it a custom file name as you save it.   Just set up a folder on your desktop or where ever, mine is "Printscreen Files", then select that folder in the setup screen.  (Folder has to be set up before you go to the configuration screen, as it won't let you create new folders there, its just a simple but powerful little program)
- last option is to set the type of output file, I used to use jpeg or gif's but use png as most people can read them now and it gives a good quality image for the file size.  You can also specify it to resize the output on save to whatever you want, I don't normally use that option.

Hope you try it, I know you will like it.  If you have something better let me know.

I put together a quick overview of all the setup screens showing my settings which will help you get started if you give it a try,  won't post them here to save space, if you're interested see   http://frontenacdesign.com/ta/printscreen/prtscrn.htm

Then add extra annotations with MS Paint or some other editor, save and attach to your post as usual using the additional options menu.

Happy trading / investing
Quasi

[trajayb]

I tried to attach, but couldn't find the chart under my post. Attempting again here.

[Quasi]

Hi, trajayb

I tried to attach, but couldn't find the chart under my post. Attempting again here.

Looks good, I see your chart.  Note you won't see it on the preview, you will only see it after you have posted.  If you don't like it you can always use the modify button to change something or use the delete button if you want to remove your post.  (the modify or delete keys only show up when looking at your own posts, just so you can't change somebody elses post by mistake).

You've got the first set down, now give it a try with some annotations on the chart, really not that hard once you try it a couple of times.

Good luck
Quasi

[Stockmonger]

cool it worked thanks!