Help pages - Student guide to using NMIT Moodle

Some of courses may ask you to share images of your own work or other pictures to share with your peers. NMIT Moodle supports sharing pictures (and other files) in a number of ways:

1. Uploading or attaching a picture file from your computer - you can attach files to messages posted in forums, glossaries and wiki's or add pictures to a gallery within your course
2. Inserting a picture from the internet - you can embed a picture located elsewhere on the internet within your own message or wiki page. In fact this method works anywhere you have access to the "Insert Image" tool in the standard text editor ().

Note: Whichever way you choose to post images within NMIT Moodle, for copyright purposes you should include appropriate references for the website you are taking the picture from.

Uploading or attaching a picture file from your computer

In a forum or glossary, you will see an Attachment option below the box where you type your message. In a photo gallery there will be an option to add your own entry by clicking on the "Add entry" tab. In both cases, click on the Browse button. Find where the file is located on your computer and select it.

Once you have filled in all the boxes click on the "Post to forum" or equivalent save button to save your entry. Your information will be saved on NMIT Moodle, including a copy of your picture. Check it is all correct and you can use the edit option to change it if required. If you uploaded a picture within a picture gallery, NMIT Online will automatically create a small version of it (thumbnail) to display in the list view.

Editing picture files Picture files can be large in terms of their dimensions (800 x 600) and their file size (1.5 MB) depending on the camera settings and how you have saved them on your computer. We recommend images are kept to the following standards to ensure they display correctly on Moodle: Maximum dimensions of 640 x 480 pixels File formats: jpg, gif or png File size: less than 150 kb if possible. You may have your own software you can use to resize images (e.g. Picasa, Paint.Net, IrfanView) or others. NMIT provides the Microsoft Picture Manager software on all our computers. Using Picture Manager to resize an image Use Windows Explorer to find your picture file Right Click on it and select "Open with... Microsoft Office Picture Manager" from your context menu. Picture manager will open and show the selected picture Click on the Edit Pictures option on the Toolbar - an editting option pane will show on the right of screen Click on the "Resize" option Select the picture size you want from the "predefined width x height" option or make a custom selection (web large or web small are good starting points). Click OK - the picture will change size Choose File --> Save As... to save the new version of the picture, giving it new file name to distinguish it from your original You are now ready to upload the smaller picture into NMIT Online.

Inserting an image from the internet - copy/paste URL (web address)

These images must already reside on the internet (e.g. be elsewhere within NMIT Moodle or be on a different website e.g. Flickr, Wikipedia etc).

You must have two tabs (or windows) open in Internet Explorer (or your alternative browser). One showing the NMIT Moodle page you are editing, the other showing the web site that contains the picture you want to embed.

1. Right click on the image you want to embed
2. Left click on the Properties option (usually at the bottom)
3. Highlight the Address (URL) text - usually looks something like
4. Copy the text (right click -> copy or keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C)
5. Go to your NMIT Moodle page and click the cursor where you want your picture to be inserted
6. Click on the "Insert image" icon in the editor toolbar (a dialog box will pop up)
7. Paste the image address into the Image URL box (right click paste or keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V)
8. Type short descriptive text in the "Alternative text" box
9. Select alignment, border and spacing options to suit and then click "OK"
10. You image should appear in the text editor within a few seconds.
11. You can do some resizing using the handles in the corners of the picture, then click the Save changes or Post to Forum button.

Your picture should now show within your saved page.