Adding pictures to your My Special Life book is a great way to share your family member with special needs life. It’s fairly easy to add pictures, but there are some specific things you need to do and rules to follow.
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On the bottom of every Stage 5 entry page there are three Picture fields as shown above. You may add up to three pictures to your My Special Life book activity. The following guidelines apply to the pictures.
1) The pictures must be uploaded to your computer’s hard drive.
2) The pictures may be up to 400 x 400 pixels and 200kb. Pictures taken with your digital camera are much larger. Scanned or camera digital files must be compressed to meet these requirements using Photoshop or the software that came with your camera. Refer to the instruction manual that came with your image software for specific instructions.
3) When you save the picture from your image software, save it as either .gif or .jpg file.
Pictures that are not .jpg or .gif or larger than 200kb will not load. If you try, you will get an error message and you must press your browser back button to return to the entry page to reenter properly formatted images.
If you try to load a very large picture (a picture downloaded from your camera and not prepare in any way can be several megabytes in size), you may have to wait a very, very, very long time for your screen to issue an error message. It’s best not to even try to upload these huge files.
If your picture is less then 200kb but greater than 400 x 400 pixels, it will load but it will be compressed to fit the 400 x 400 pixel restraint. It may look squashed. For this reason it is always best to prepare your picture to fit within the 400 x 400 pixel window.
4) Once your pictures are prepared and uploaded to your computer’s hard drive, click one of the Browse buttons. Find your picture (.gif or .jpg) on your hard drive, select it and press open. The picture location will be written in the Picture field next to the Browse button.
5) We recommend loading one picture at a time, however, if you are confident that your file structure is perfect, you may add up to three at a time.
6) When ready, press the Submit button to load the picture or pictures to your My Special Life book.
7) Refresh your browser each time a picture is replaced or added.
This is important. If you miss it, you may think your picture(s) were not uploaded correctly and cause you to waste a lot of time. When you upload or reload any picture, it may be necessary to refresh your browser to have the picture display; otherwise your browser memory may hold the old picture and you will not see the new one.
8) You may return to the entry page at any time to add additional pictures. You may change any picture by selecting one of the Browse buttons and uploading a new picture. You may not delete any picture. If it is necessary to remove a picture, either replace it with another or replace it with a blank graphic. Remember — refresh your browser after each upload.