Hampedia:File Conversion Tutorial

= Preparing files for Uploading to Hampedia =

So you've got a cool new picture/ diagram/ piece of audio/ document that you want on Hampedia? Is it in one of these formats?

Filetypes accepted by Hampedia
(This list is also on the upload page)

How to tell what format a file is in
Check the extension, the three (sometimes more) letters after the "." in the filename. If you can't see that, you have some more options.

On Windows 2000/XP

 * Right-click on the file and click "properties." That should show you.
 * Alternatively, if you still can't figure it out, click the "Start" button and open "Control Panel". Double-click "Folder Options" and click the "View" tab at the top. Scroll down in the "Advanced Settings" box until you see the checkbox labeled "Hide extensions for known file types". Uncheck it and hit "Ok". Now you should be able to see file extensions.

On OSX 10.4 and up (Mac)
Select the files and control-click/right-click it and select "Get Info," or hit Commnad-i.

If you're VERY lazy
You could just try uploading the file and seeing if Hampedia accepts it. But that's a very inelegant way of doing it.

Argh! Hampedia hates my file!
Most likely, your filetype was not accepted, probably because it's not an open-source-friendly file type. Don't worry, that's why this page is here.

Converting Text Files

 * Open the file your word processor (probably MS Word) and select File --&gt; Save As.
 * In the dropdown box under where you type the filename, select "Rich Text File". This will save your file with the extension '.rtf' and may cause you to lose some formatting.
 * If you absolutely MUST have everything exactly as it appears, and a '.rtf' file will not give you that, consider using OpenOffice to do your word processing, at least insofar as it applies to documents for upload to Hampedia.

Converting Image Files
Open your preferred image editor and simply save the image as one of the previously mentioned formats, such as '.png'. If you can't do that in your current application, here are some that can.


 * Windows: IrfanView
 * OSX (Mac): iPhoto
 * GNU/Linux: The GIMP (use your package manager to get it)

Converting Audio Files

 * First, procure a sound editing program. Audacity is a good choice, as it's both open-source and multi-platform.
 * For a quick-and-dirty conversion, open your file in Audacity and select File --&gt; Export As OGG Vorbis.
 * If you want to get a better, faster, more compact, or different conversion, hit up the Audacity Wiki.

Last-Ditch Efforts
If none of the above worked, for some crazy reason, or kept munging your output, or killed your dog, or something, you have one last recourse. You can upload you files to your student space on stout, the student server.


 * BE AWARE! You have a space quota on stout, 600MB. If you go over that, Bad Things(TM) will happen.


 * To upload to stout, open your favorite FTP client (FileZilla if you don't have one) and point it to http://stout.hampshire.edu.
 * Make sure that you are in SFTP or SCP mode. Normal FTP does not suffice.
 * Your username and password are the same as TheHub, your Hampshire email, and every other college service.
 * Place the files you want people to be able to to download in the "public_html" directory.


 * Please note: These files will be accessible to ANYONE AND EVERYONE on the internet.


 * The files will appear under http://stout.hampshire.edu/~YourinitialsYouradmissionyear/yourfilename.extension