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Tutorial: Uploading Images to AOL

AOL has its own unique method for transferring files. This method involves a number of screens and can be long and time consuming if you’re using a slow connection.  To upload a picture file to AOL, follow these instructions:

Step 1: From the AOL main screen, click on Keyword, then enter My Place to go to the My Place window as shown in the following figure. (Some figures may have changed with newer versions of AOL, but the procedure usually continues to remain about the same.)

Figure 1 The AOL My Place window.

Step 2: On the My Place window, locate the spot called “My FTP Space.” When you click on this item AOL displays a window called “members.aol.com/youraolname” shown in Figure 2. Notice the Upload button at the bottom of this window. This is the option you want to select to send a file from your hard disk to your private disk space on AOL.

 Figure 2 - The AOL FTP upload window

Step 3. Click on the Upload button in the members.aol.com window. A textbox  appears called “Remote Filename.” Enter the name of your graphic file (must be .gif or .jpg) as you want it to be on your AOL disk space. For example, you might enter something like rose.jpg. Click Continue.

Step 4: A dialog box called Upload File is displayed as shown in Figure 9.10. This is where you’ll tell AOL which file on your hard disk you want to upload. If you know the name of the file, enter it in the text box at the bottom of the dialog box. If you do not know the file name, click on the Find File button and find the file on your hard disk. Once you’ve entered the name of the file to upload, click on the Send button. AOL will then transfer the file from your hard disk to your AOL web space.

 
Figure 3 - The AOL upload file window

Step 5: When the file transfer is finished, click OK.

You can test to see if your image was successfully transferred by going to your web browser and entering the name of the file. For AOL, the name (for this example) will be:

http://members.aol.com/yourAOLname/rose.jpg  

Once your image is available on the web, it can be readily used in your auction description. For example, in the eBay “Sell Your Item” form, you’ll see an item called Picture URL. This is where you place the address of your picture. For the rose picture, you’d enter http://members.aol.com/yourAOLname/rose.jpg in the eBay Picture URL text box as shown in Figure 4.

 Figure 4

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© Alan C. Elliott, 2000
Updated April 7, 2000