Inspired by the graphically challenged Nima, I thought I would help a (TKE) brother out and write a short tip on image layout in ActiveRain.

There are two tabs on the 'Insert Image' dialog box - 'General' and 'Appearance'. When you've finished uploading the image on the 'General' tab, click on 'Appearance'.

'Alignment' lets you set whether the image will appear to the right or left (or other choices) of the text.

'Vertical Space' creates a buffer between the text above and below the image. 'Horizontal Space' is for left and right so the text doesn't 'smush' against the image.

How big (dimensions) should the image be? That's a matter of personal preference, but we need to remember that larger images take up more space on servers and take longer to download. As a general guideline I would say try to keep images around 200 x 300, or smaller. Some examples, the ActiveRain logo is 190 x 51; our photos on our blog entries are 70-100 x 105; my dog Sundance is 180 x 180; Brittany and Bryant is 320 x 317 (you can't put a pixel limit on family!) ... (Note: Resizing images may affect quality, but that's a topic for another post.)

So take a few moments to experiment with the 'Appearance' tab, and your posts will quickly take on a professional look that will set you apart from the other agents in your market. And Nima, I'll email you some web-sized versions of your images for future posts!