Bio Builder Help & FAQ

How Do I find the "path" to my image?
How Do I create a text or image link?
Why don't my photos show up? (a.k.a red X syndrome)
What's HTML? What do I copy?

How Do I find the "path" to my image?

This really is easier than it seems.

If the photo you want to add is on a website already
(e.g. davidsbridal.com, theknot.com, Snapfish!, Shutterfly):

right click on the photo you like, and go to "properties".
under "address" you'll see the path -- something like http://www.blahblahblah.jpg.
Copy that path by selecting it with your mouse and hitting CTRL and C.
Example -- what you need to copy is highlighted:

If the photo you want to put up is on your computer:

go to Snapfish! or Shutterfly and create an account (it's free).
upload (add) the photos you have on your computer using their service.
view the photo, and follow instructions above for getting the image path from a website.

Your "path" should ALWAYS start with http:// and will usually end with either .gif, .jpg, or .bmp

note: Some sites have the means to block you from using an image on their site. They
do this because when you use an image that's stored on their server (their computer),
you're using up their connection, and their hardrive. Some companies actively seek and
destroy, most don't care. So if your link works, then suddenly stops,
that's a possible cause.
But remember that if you do this, you ARE stealing their bandwidth, costing them money,
and possibly violating copyrights.

How Do I Create A Text Or Image Link?

To make a link you need
1. a "destination" -- in other words the site you want to take people to.
2. a clickable object. Either text or an image.

Links are constructed like this:

<A href="destination">clickable part</A>

An example link using text:

<A href="http://www.microsoft.com">go to Microsoft.com</A>

An example link using an image:

<A href="http://www.theknot.com"><IMG src="http://www.url.com/imagefilename.jpg" border="0"></A>

Why don't my photos show up? (a.k.a red X syndrome)

note: if you are using the bio builder tool, there's a 99% chance the problem is
your image or image path.

There are really two main reasons a photo won't show up:

1. There's something wrong with the image or image path.
2. There's something wrong with your HTML tag.

So, how do you tell which it is? Easy...

An image tag looks something like this:

<IMG src="http://www.zaidascot.com/storage/photos/large/2005122217_019.jpg">

The "path" is all the stuff between the quotes. It will always start with "http://" and will almost
always end with a .jpg or .gif. To test what's wrong, copy this path (without the quotes), and
paste it into the location bar of your browser (the area you type the web address into), and hit
"enter".

Does the image show up?

If your answer is "yes" then there's something wrong with your HTML.
If your answer is "no" then there's something wrong with your image or your path.

If there's something wrong with your HTML, check the the tag carefully. Remember that it
takes very little to make HTML not work. you could be missing an end quote, or the
colon after the http.

If there's something wrong with your image or path, check it again. Find the image on whatever
site you grabbed it from (or your Snapfish!, Shutterfly, yahoo, or other photo account), and right-click on it,
then select "properties" to get the path (under "URL"). Copy this again (all of it, no matter how
long) and paste it into the image tag.

In either case, your tag should look like:

<IMG src="PATH">

note: some places don't like you linking to their images. If you are using an image that's on someone
else's site, and you can't get it to work, there's a chance they're blocking you from using it.
The main symptom of this is if your image works at first, then stops working. That means they found
out you were linking to them, and shut you out.

What is HTML and what do I copy for step 5?

HTML is the "code" (programming jibberish) that you need to display images and other
pretty things in your bio (or any web page). It contains a series of "tags" that you
use to put stuff in a web page. Examples include the image tag, the line-break tag, the
font tag etc.

The bio builder is a tool that generates this HTML for you. All you need to do is input
your information, preview your bio, and then copy and paste the HTML the bio builder makes
for you into your bio.

What do you copy? You'll see right under "step 5" an area with a gray background. You
need to copy EVERYTHING in in that gray background area, and NOTHING else. What you need
to copy will look somewhat like this, but probably longer:

You need to paste this into the "about our wedding" section of your community bio.

Some common problems:
1. Make SURE you're logged into theknot.com
2. To get to your community bio, go to the main page, click on "chats & boards", and
    the link to "my community bio" is on the left hand side near the top.
3. Make sure you paste the HTML into the "about our wedding section" AND make sure you
    paste it OVER everything already in there.
4. To COPY you highlight what you want to copy and press CTRL and C.
5. To PASTE you click inside whereever you want to paste (or highlight what you want to
    paste over) and press CTRL and V.
6. To make sure you don't lose your bio, just in case, COPY and PASTE all the HTML into
    a Word, NotePad, or Simpletext document and save it BEFORE you close the bio
    builder window.

Still have a question? Ask me.