How are you able to show the pictures on the forum without having to click on the attachment?

Do you mean add your own images to a post, or to view images put there by another member?

Yes, I mean my own images. I see people post their images on the forum that show up without having to click on the attachment. I just click on the discussion and the images show up automatically.

There are two ways to do it.

1. You'll need to be in the full posting screen (which you get automatically when you start a new post; if you are replying to an existing post, then click on "Switch to Full Reply Screen"). Once there, you will see a link to "File Manager" right below where you type your post. From File Manager, you can add up to 5 images with captions that you can upload. These images will all appear below your written text once you finish your post.

2. If you have an image already visible on a web site somewhere (perhaps on your own or from any other source, but must be visible as an image), then just right click on the image and select "copy image location" (or whatever it's called in your browser/operating system). Then, in your forum post, you just surround it with the image tags (I'm using open and close parentheses here, but you should replace them with open and close square brackets - however, if I enter that, you won't see it in the text post, because the forum will interpret it as code).

(image)http://www.website.com/yourimage.jpg(/image)

You can do that inline with your post and the image will appear.

If you don't want to do it manually, you can have the forum software do it for you. Make sure you are in the Full Reply Mode and the fourth button from the left will insert the image code and you just have to enter the image URL.

I hope that made sense.

There's a thread here on the subject in the Tips and Tricks section.

Adding images to a post.

There is a file size restriction for viewing without clicking. If it is big, you will have to click to view.