Adding More Images
to your Thayer Birding Software Program
It is easy to add a lot more images to your birding program. You can add bird photos you took yourself, photos offered on this web site, photos of birds from other birding web sites or even photos of birds you discover using the image search feature in Google or Bing search engines.
The Gold edition is FAR more robust and has an easy-to-use import feature. The version 4 DVD will also let you add new images.
After showing you how to import photos into your birding software, we will point you towards some great resources on the Internet for new bird images.
Version 4 and 4.5:
Windows computers:
Open the program and go to the eViewer page for any bird. Scroll down and click on My Comments (Add/Edit). Click the Editor tab. From here you can type comments and format your typed comments. You can also add images by clicking anywhere in the large area below and then clicking on the "Insert Image" icon - the one that looks like a mountain and a sun.
Insert Image icon
This will open the Image Insert Dialog screen. Using this, you can link to images on a Local File such as your hard drive, Desktop or a Memory Stick. You can also enter alternate text that will appear when you place your mouse over the image. To resize the image, click on the image while it is in the Editor and then grab the lower right corner or grab the small white boxes around the edge of the image. Drag and drop to resize the image. An image that is too wide will distort the rest of the eField Guide viewer screen. A width of 500 pixels is about right for most computers. Click OK when done.
To link to an image on the internet, click the Internet URL radio button and then type the full URL into the box at the top labled "Picture Source URL." It should look something like this:
http://www.thayerbirding.com/Portals/11/FreeBirdPhotos/Loggerhead-Shrike.jpg
It needs to start with http:// and end with .jpg or .gif or .bmp or some other image extension. Images on the Internet tend to get replaced or deleted, so if you want to keep the image permanently, it is best to go to the source web page and right-click on the image and select "Save As" and then save it on your hard drive. (You may want to be sure you are saving full images, not thumbnail images.)
Please respect copyrights of other's images. I am not a lawyer, but if I see an image and the web site is allowing me to copy the image, I feel that it is OK to download it ONLY for my own use.
Webmasters: this is a good article on image protection: http://www.naturefocused.com/articles/image-protection.html
When adding more than one image, be sure to have a space between the images vertically before you add the second image or they will display as one very wide image.
Mac computers:
For those with version 4 installed on Mac computers, it is not this easy. We were unable to locate a commercially available editing tool for the Mac similar to this Windows tool. But you can still use HTML code to add an image. Use this syntax:
<img src="/portals/11/URL" alt="label for image" width="500"/>
So on a Mac computer, if you wanted to insert the image of the Loggerhead Shrike available on this web site, you would type:
<img src=http://www.thayerbirding.com/Portals/11/FreeBirdPhotos/Loggerhead-Shrike.jpg alt="Loggerhead Shrike" width="500" />
To make a line break between images you would enter: <p>
Gold Edition version 5 and 5.5:
Adding a new photo to the Gold edition is much easier. Simply go to the eViewer page of the bird you want. Here we selected Mottled Duck. Then click the My Media Add/Edit link. A screen appears that lets you add photos, sounds or videos. If you click New Photo..., the New Photo box appears.
Click Browse to find the image you want on your computer's hard drive. If you find an image on the Internet, download it to your computer first. Add a caption if you like and then click OK.
All media added in this way is actually stored in a separate database on your hard drive, so be sure to copy that file if you ever change computers! You may add as many images as you like. These images are then visible in Side-by-side comparisons, the eField Guide page and in quizzes (set photo to "random" not to "best" in the quiz setup.)
Internet Resources for Bird Photos:
You can find hundreds of thousands of bird images on the Internet. The easiest way is to go to www.Google.com or www.Bing.com and type in a bird's common name. Then click the image link. You should see dozens of images.
You will want to copy a full-sized image, rather than the thumbnail that is displaying. There may be a link that says "full-size image" (in Google and Bing this appears after you click on the image) or you may need to go to the original web page where it appears. Then right-click on the image and choose "Save Picture As." If you are copying a lot of images, it makes sense to create a folder on your desktop. You will want to rename the image files you save so you remember the bird's name or a special attribute about the plumage.
You can also type in the bird's scientific name in the search engine. Of course, there are many other search engines you can use as well.
You can also get free images at this web site. Other users of the Thayer Birding Software have agreed to share these with you for your own personal use.
Another good web site for photos and videos is http://ibc.lynxeds.com/