These are the guidelines for inserting images at species pages.
Process I follow for making the genera pages : 2 posts by 1 author. We are in an exciting phase as our database becomes more and more accurate with the scrutiny & insertion of images at species, genera and family pages.
Initially images were inserted from a few threads & it so happened that images were not correct. So I decided to go through all the threads in a species page & try to insert at least a few images above each of them. During the process, I find that images in some of threads look different (naturally they are from a different species unless there are lot of variations in that species). As I repeat this process for other species in a genera, generally identity of wrongly identified posts becomes clear & I accordingly resurface them with correct id with the intimation to the posted member & the members who have participated in that thread to ensure that I get feedback from them, if they feel otherwise. These are further reviewed accordingly. Of course, sometimes matters get very complicated and I have to refer to the keys in the floras & books available in the net along with our discussions & keys therein. Simultaneously I insert images at genera pages from where it becomes quite easy to compare different species. I have started keeping images from different threads separately so that if any misidentification is noticed in any of the threads, it is accordingly rectified. One can see one of our latest pages at Pogostemon.
I also check images at Flowers of India site and point out mistakes to Tabish ji and get his additional feedbacks.
Sometimes some of the images are from other genera, which I try to correct as I progress from one genera to another in that family. Also there are lot of threads which had remain unidentified, I also try to give correct identification for these.
By the end of the process, it is a great feeling of becoming an expert on that genera at least for those species which are in our database. I think this is possible due to the insights of the experts and members which we get in the threads. Multiple observations help a lot in that matter.
I do not know what is the process followed in the herbariums. But I see there are corrections from time to time in many of the herbarium sheets we use for identification of our species.
A New Experiment : 1 post by 1 author
We have started a new experiment. Pl. see click at Lepidium
Here we have inserted images at most of the threads of Lepidium species, whether identified or unidentified (subject to say a maximum of 20 images per page in the latest threads) & kept at the top of the discussions in a thread. These are than transferred to genera pages as per the given link above. One best set or more from these images will than be kept at family pages also.
This way we can bring out the capabilities of efloraofindia so far, in all its aspects. We may be able to correct wrong species at the time of insertion itself or may be in future as & when any error is pointed out. Any odd thread with wrong identification will also come to our knowledge for correction.
It will also give a wider pool of images for correct identification in future.
Existing members doing insertion can continue their work in this format or in the format they have been doing so far.
We have already tried it in many species & genera pages of Brassicaceae. Hope this experiment becomes successful.
This has been very successful & easy for members to do so.
During last five months we have been following this & feel more confident with this exercise. Even a layman can do it very easily.
Major advantage with this is that images along with the thread can be very easily transferred to another page, if it is found the id has been incorrect for a particular thread.
Also it is very easy to note any incorrectness of a thread in comparison to other threads in the page. I have been able to rectify so many threads in this way.
Yes …, indeed very easy to do.
Tried some more pages. I am enjoying doing it… a great learning experience as well. Shall be at it whenever I get time.
It is good that you updated the post so that many who have been out of touch like me can catch up.
Appreciating your diligence,
How to insert images in a tabular form:
1. Go to any species page at efi site (either by search or by any other way) where their post/ thread is available e.g. Saxifraga brachypoda
2. Sign in at the bottom of the page with Gmail Id (may not be required if one is already signed to gmail or efi group).
3. Click on the thread from which one wants to insert pictures at this page. e.g. VOF Week: : Saxifraga brachypoda at VoF
4. From this thread click on the picture one wants to insert- from here one gets the URL (web address) of the picture to be inserted. e.g. URL
5. Click on edit page button at top right side of the efloraofindia website page.
6. Now SELECT a TABLE from the MENU to be inserted below the botanical names. Please select only 1 column & 1 row (see the picture below -)
7. Click on the TABLE and expand it right side to roughly a size that can house say four thumbnails side-by-side inside this table (please see the picture below -) 8. Write ‘Images by …, Id/ validated by … (Inserted by …) ‘ at the beginning of the inserted table & format it suitably with font size of 8 with left orientation using Formatting Tool Bar at top. Click Enter key after this to move the next row.
9. Now click on ‘Insert’. Click on ‘Image’.
9. Select ‘Web address (URL)’ under Add an Image. Copy URL (web address) of the image to be inserted (e.g. URL) & paste this image ‘URL’ in ‘Image URL’. Click on ‘OK’ button when image is being displayed.
10. Now from the tool bar which is visible on the image (Click on the image, if not visible), against Go to link to ‘Change or Remove’ – Click on ‘Change’. Select ‘Open this link in a new window’ in the message box that pops up and click OK.
11. Now from the tool bar which is visible on the image (Click on the image, if not visible), select ‘Wrap on’ & ‘S’ (for small size).
12. Similarly Insert other images from the same thread or other threads in the table one after another. We can insert suitable number of images to show all aspects of a plant.
13. Suitably reduce the size of the table depending on the number & size of the images.
14. Now click on save button at the top right of the efloraofindia website page.
Images of around 100 Kb or less are preferred while inserting images at efi pages : 2 posts by 1 author.
It is to inform everybody that images of around 100 Kb or less are preferred while inserting images at efi pages as these make the pages light & images can open quickly. Also these images takes less time while inserting. This is all the more important as now we are inserting more than four images, if available.
Members (who are inserting images) are also requested to give preference to such images compared to other images which are of larger size, provided they serve the purpose of showing all aspects of a plant through the images. We can have more than 4 images at species pages- Around 15,000 images already inserted : 3 posts by 2 authors.
Due to continuous efforts by our members (in particular Bhagyashri ji, D S Rawat ji, TSP Kumar ji, Surajit ji, Anurag ji, Gurcharan Singh ji, Sushant ji & Pankaj ji, Sandhya ji, Nidhan ji, Vijayasankar ji, Prabhukumar ji, Nadeem ji etc. as per details at Heroes of efi site), I think we already have 15,000 unique images at efi site. Lot of these are repeated at genera & family pages for comparative views. It has really been a good learning experience for those involved in inserting images.
Initially we have generally gone for only 4 images in a species page & these has been very useful in further identifications & validations. I think with the system already well established, now we should go for more than four images if there are more aspects which we can be shown through thumbnail size images as is being followed at Biotik. However we may only keep four images at large size genera pages & large size family pages for comparative viewing.
I seek your views & feedback in the matter pl.
I agree it would make the species pages much more informative and useful to have Biotik style images of various aspects of the species whereever possible.
One feature i like in the Biotik.org thumbnails is the tooltip which identifies the feature highlighted in the particular image – ‘Habit’, ‘Leaf’, ‘Fruit’ and so on. Is there some way to specify the tooltip for each inserted image on the species/genera pages?
Thanks, Nadeem ji.
It should be very useful. But I don’t know how to do it.
May be Dinesh ji can give some idea.
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