MorphoBank accepts a variety of image formats including JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and Photoshop. Note that Photoshop files that use layer effects may not render properly on MorphoBank. For the most consistent results we recommend converting these files to TIFF format before uploading. All image files should be in RGB mode. Files in CMYK mode will probably not render properly. You should upload image files at the highest resolution that makes sense for your project. MorphoBank will automatically create sized versions for use on the site as well as a full resolution version optimized for online viewing. The original uploaded file is retained and made available for download. MorphoBank also accepts the following audio/video file formats: RealMedia, QuickTime and WindowsMedia. MorphoBank does not support the PowerPoint file format. If you need to use images from a PowerPoint presentation, you should export them from PowerPoint in a supported format such as JPEG and then upload those files.

The preferred video file format for upload to MorphoBank is MPEG-4 (with or without h.264 compression). Files in QuickTime and WindowsMedia format will usually work so long as the compression method used is supported by MorphoBank's video processor. In general, videos compressed with versions of WindowsMedia prior to version 10 will work, as will most QuickTime compression methods (some very old and rarely used methods like GIF compression are the notable exceptions). AVI files usually will not work and should be converted to MPEG-4 prior to upload. MPEG-2 (.MPG) files also will not upload. In general if your uploaded file is being rejected by MorphoBank it is recommended that you try re-encoding the file in the MPEG-4 format using one of the many video conversion tools available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

Audio files may be uploaded to MorphoBank is MP3, AIFF or WAV format. Other formats, such as AAC, are not supported. If you need to convert or edit your audio files use a sound editing application such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).

To add a media file to your project, click on the add media button in the button bar. You will be presented with a form like the one below.

Figure 10.1. New media upload form

Use the "Choose media file to upload" file browse button to pick a file to upload. It must, of course, be in a supported format or it will be rejected. To pick the specimen from the project specimen directory that this media item represents, type the first few letters of the taxonomic name catalogue number or institution code into the "Specimen" text entry box. A menu will appear with all possible matches, as shown below. The more you type the more specific the list of possible matches will become.

Figure 10.2. Media editing form with specimen match menu visible

You can tag your image with one of the views, as configured in the Views tab by choosing it from the "View" drop-down menu. Choose "- NONE -" if no view is applicable.

If the image is under copyright, be sure to check the "Is under copyright?" box and enter the copyright information (year, holder, contact information) into the "Copyright holder" text entry field.

You may add notes to the image using the "Notes" field. Notes are private to the project and are not published. If your image was obtained on the Internet you can note the URL from which it was obtained and any documentary information in the "Url of media" and "Url description" fields.

You may optionally attach a bibliographic reference to the image by typing in the first few characters of the reference title or author name(s) into the "Find bibliographic reference" box. You will be presented with a list of possible matches from your project bibliography from which you can choose the appropriate reference.

The File Space is a holding area for media that are not yet part of a project. You can upload media in batches to the file space and then add individual files in rapid succession to a project from the file space, rather than uploading files one by one. This can be a major time saver for projects with large pre-existing collections of media.

Each MorphoBank user has her own File Space, the contents of which is not shared. Files in your File Space are not visible to anyone but you until they are added to a project.

To upload a batch of media (images, video, sound, etc.), you must convert the batch of files to a single archive file. The file space will accept archives in either Zip or Tar format. Tar archives may be optionally compressed with Gzip or BZip2. To create Zip archives on Windows, you must use a program like WinZip. On Mac OS X, simply control-click on the folder containing the images and select "Create archive" from the pop-up menu.

Your archives can contain files in any supported format. Unsupported formats will be ignored. You may group files in nested folders. The folder structure you create will be preserved in the file space. You may also upload individual files in the listed formats. Please note, however, that when uploading a single TIFF or PSD format file it will often be faster to upload a compressed archive containing the file than the file itself, unless it is a TIFF saved with LZW compression. Compressing single files in the other formats is generally not worthwhile.

Your archive must be no greater than 32MB in size. Archives exceeding this size will be ignored.

Add media to a project from the File Space

To add media from your File Space to a project, simply open the File Space and click on the media. You will then be presented with a form like the one shown in Figure 10.1, “New media upload form”, except that the media file is pre-filled. Simply fill out the form as you would for media added with the Add Media button and click "save."

Note that the File Spaces are private to users, not projects. This means that not only is your File Space the same across all projects you are working on, but it is not shared with other project members. It is private to you.

	Warning
	Since the file space is the same for all projects you are working on, make sure you are in the correct project before adding media.

You can upload batches of media directly into your project using the media batch upload tool. This is in contrast to the file space which allows you to upload batches of media to a holding pen for subsequent addition to a project on a 1-by-1 basis along with metadata such as specimen, notes and copyright information. The batch tool will add any number of media directly to your project in a single step and is thus much more efficient than the file space. However, all of the media in the batch will have the same metadata. Which tool you use depends upon the nature of your media (and project). If you have quantities of media having the same copyright, specimen or descriptive text then the batch upload tool is probably the right choice. If you have quantities of media with widely variable metadata then the file space is likely a better choice.

Figure 10.3. The media batch upload tool

To use the batch upload tool, click on the add media batch button bar. You will see a screen like the one shown in Figure 10.3, “The media batch upload tool”. Under the header "Choose a ZIP, TAR, TAR+gzip, TAR+bzip archive or individual file" click on the file browser button and select a batch of media compressed as a ZIP, TAR, TAR+gzip (.tgz) or TAR+bzip (.tar.bz2) file. Fill in any of the other fields for which you have data. To select a specimen type the first few letters of the specimens name into the text entry. A list will appear with possible matches. Similarly, if you wish to link a bibliographic citation to the uploaded media type the first few letters of the references' title or author and then pick the relevant reference from the list of possible matches that appears.