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Mystery or Puzzle Caches


DBombardier

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We'll wait for the computer gurus to give a longer answer, but the short answer is that you can always edit the listing, and then use standard HTML script to add text, graphics, color, banners, photos, etc. Just click "edit" and do your thing. Not familiar with HTML? Neither was I, but with a bit of help from friends or online, you can do it. All the basic HTML commands already exist, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel and actually write programming script. You just cut and paste them in.

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We'll wait for the computer gurus to give a longer answer, but the short answer is that you can always edit the listing, and then use standard HTML script to add text, graphics, color, banners, photos, etc. Just click "edit" and do your thing. Not familiar with HTML? Neither was I, but with a bit of help from friends or online, you can do it. All the basic HTML commands already exist, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel and actually write programming script. You just cut and paste them in.

 

One of the best ways to learn is to look at other cache pages that included formatted text and images, view the source of the page, then look for a string like this:

 

<span id="ctl00_ContentBody_LongDescription">

 

Everything that appears between that line and the next </span> tag (assuming that the user didn't include and span tags in the HTML they added) is what is used to create the Long description section of the listing. You can get a pretty good idea for how to format your own cache page listing from there.

 

The img.geocaching.com site is the image server used by the geocaching.com site. The best way to use it is to create an initial cache page with just some placeholder text for the description (be sure to unselect the "this cache is active" checkbox). After saving the page, you can use the "Upload Images" link to upload any images you can use in your puzzle. Once they're uploaded, you need to link to them in the long description section of the listing. After uploading images you'll see links to those images when viewing the cache page just above the "Logged Visits" section. Click on the link and the URL for the image will show up in the browser location bar. Copy that String and paste it into the HTML for the long description in an "img" tag.

 

For an example of a simple HTML description that uses a different font, a table to format the text and images, and a single image, you can look at this cache: Briar Patch

 

Note: some puzzle creators will upload photos that are part of puzzle to a different image hosting service (such as imageshack) to prevent the link to the image showing up on the cache listing. It adds a small amount of complexity to a puzzle. For example, I've done a puzzle which I uploaded several images to the page that are displayed on the cache page, but clicking on the image links to a "copy" of the image (with a small modification in each image) that has the elements of the puzzle.

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I am making my first new Mystery Cache and need to add some pictures in this cache. Where ca I copy my pictures and how do you get them back in the cache description? I saw that many users are using the img.geocaching.com site. How can I use this site also?

img.geocaching.com is where images are stored if you use the various links to upload an image while writing up the description. I don't remember the details offhand, but what you're doing is normal and covered pretty well in the geocaching.com documentation.

 

As NYPaddleCacher mentions, you could look at other pages' source code, but actually I'd recommend against that in this case since you might be misled by looking at a cache page that's doing something special when you'd be better off using the common approach.

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I am making my first new Mystery Cache and need to add some pictures in this cache. Where ca I copy my pictures and how do you get them back in the cache description? I saw that many users are using the img.geocaching.com site. How can I use this site also?

img.geocaching.com is where images are stored if you use the various links to upload an image while writing up the description. I don't remember the details offhand, but what you're doing is normal and covered pretty well in the geocaching.com documentation.

 

As NYPaddleCacher mentions, you could look at other pages' source code, but actually I'd recommend against that in this case since you might be misled by looking at a cache page that's doing something special when you'd be better off using the common approach.

 

That's certainly a possibility. Using an example that is poorly written as a base for developing something new could just lead to more poorly written html, but even bad code can help you understand the syntax. The example that gave is a simple common approach and if the OP found an example cache listing that demonstrated what they'd like to do, they could always post the GC code so that those of us with HTML experience (I've been doing web page development pretty much since the beginning of the web) can take a look at it. There are also certainly lots of basic HTML tutorials available that one can walk through to learn the basics.

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If you are using Firefox you can use download a script called "Write area". Remember to tick the "The descriptions below are in HTML" box. Then in the usual "long description" box where you would be editing your cache page you just "right click" and hit "edit in write area", a new window will pop up with all the usual more user friendly options will be available - different fonts, insert image, center image. You can also click on and stretch or shrink images as you like. Click the "save" tab and it will convert it into HTML. Remember to tick the "The descriptions below are in HTML" box. The "write area" editor automatically creates the required HTML code, so although teaching you very little will give you the required results. I hope this might help a few people out there.

9fc72902-1fe8-4e13-8882-1b8f018d4a0b.jpg?rnd=0.8515545</p>

Edited by malo mystery
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We'll wait for the computer gurus to give a longer answer, but the short answer is that you can always edit the listing, and then use standard HTML script to add text, graphics, color, banners, photos, etc. Just click "edit" and do your thing. Not familiar with HTML? Neither was I, but with a bit of help from friends or online, you can do it. All the basic HTML commands already exist, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel and actually write programming script. You just cut and paste them in.

 

One of the best ways to learn is to look at other cache pages that included formatted text and images, view the source of the page, then look for a string like this:

 

<span id="ctl00_ContentBody_LongDescription">

 

Everything that appears between that line and the next </span> tag (assuming that the user didn't include and span tags in the HTML they added) is what is used to create the Long description section of the listing. You can get a pretty good idea for how to format your own cache page listing from there.

 

The img.geocaching.com site is the image server used by the geocaching.com site. The best way to use it is to create an initial cache page with just some placeholder text for the description (be sure to unselect the "this cache is active" checkbox). After saving the page, you can use the "Upload Images" link to upload any images you can use in your puzzle. Once they're uploaded, you need to link to them in the long description section of the listing. After uploading images you'll see links to those images when viewing the cache page just above the "Logged Visits" section. Click on the link and the URL for the image will show up in the browser location bar. Copy that String and paste it into the HTML for the long description in an "img" tag.

 

For an example of a simple HTML description that uses a different font, a table to format the text and images, and a single image, you can look at this cache: Briar Patch

 

Note: some puzzle creators will upload photos that are part of puzzle to a different image hosting service (such as imageshack) to prevent the link to the image showing up on the cache listing. It adds a small amount of complexity to a puzzle. For example, I've done a puzzle which I uploaded several images to the page that are displayed on the cache page, but clicking on the image links to a "copy" of the image (with a small modification in each image) that has the elements of the puzzle.

- That's how I do it, but instead of creating a new cache page, I add pics to an archived hide.

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