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Creating Images for the Encyclopedia

This page is a chapter in 'Book Encyclopedia Writers Guide'


Creating an image to be used in encyclopedia articles involves 4 steps:
  • Getting the image.
  • Checking the copyright.
  • Naming the image.
  • Uploading the image to the encyclopedia Images namespace.

Getting the image

Get the image and save it on your own computer.

Images can come from many sources:
  • A photograph you have taken yourself.
  • An image from an internet web site, such as a wikipedia commons image.
  • A scan of a document.
  • etc.
So the first step is to find or create an image and then save it on your computer.
Read the article Copyright of images in the NAWCC Encyclopedia.

It is essential that an image can be used without without any risk of it violating someones copyright.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the use of an image falls into one of the four copyright categories described in the article on copyright of images.

If you have any doubts then get advice or do not use the image.

Naming the image

Give the image a descriptive file name.

All images should have names which accurately describe the image. The name should consist of key words followed by qualifiers followed by the file type suffix. For example:
  • Dennison, Aaron Lufkin, Portrait.jpg is a good name. It states precisely what the image relates to and then qualifies it with the type of image.
  • Dennison is not a good name. There are several people with the name Dennison who are relevant to horology and the nature of the image is not known. Also, there is no file type suffix.
  • Waltham Watch Company, Watch Model 1857, #11,218.gif is a good name. WWC57-11218.jpg is not because it is too cryptic.

This means image file names are very long, but modern computer systems have no problems with them.

Uploading the image

Uploading the image involves the following steps:
  1. Navigate to the Encyclopedia Images namespace.
  2. Create a new article which has the same name as the image on you computer, including the file type suffix.
    Images are always placed in articles with only one image in each article, and the system requires the image and the article to have the same name.
  3. Attach the image to the article.

Example of the uploading process

Uploading an image is easy provided you use the same names for the article and the image:

Create image: In this example, the image was created by taking a digital photograph and saving it on a computer. The image file was then renamed Poljot, Marine Chronometer #22618, Movement.jpg

Create article: Create an article in the image namespace with the title Poljot, Marine Chronometer #22618, Movement.jpg. The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the images file name. Add some suitable text to the article describing the image and a copyright/license notice. Standard templates for this purpose are available and are described in the article [main]Image copyright and license templates[/main].

While in the edit tab, choose the Manage Attachments option to attach the image to the article:

In the Manage Attachments window, click on Choose File in the Upload File from Your Computer section and select the file on your computer. (Do not use the Upload File from URL section):

Click on Upload File and the file will be uploaded into the image namespace for you:

Now the image will be attached:

Save the article.

Image sizes

The system imposes maximum sizes for images. If you upload an image that is too large it may unexpectedly be scaled down to a very small size. So:
  • Make sure your image is less than the maximum sizes specified in the following table.
  • But make the image as large as possible. If possible, images should be 300 dpi.

Documents other than images

As the above table indicates, documents other than images can be uploaded into the image namespace, including Microsoft word, Excel, text and pdf files. However, do not use use these unless you are sure that the information needs to be in a special file instead of simply incorporated into an article.

Categories: Category Tutorials

This page has been seen 1,916 times.

Current Discussion: Main discussion

  1. tom mcintyre

    tom mcintyre Technical Admin
    Staff Member NAWCC Star Fellow NAWCC Ruby Member Sponsor

    Aug 24, 2000
    retired SW dev

    This is a test to see what happens with various attachment mechanisms.