Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #7: Personalizing the Boneyard

[HuskyNan]

Previous lessons
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #1: Private messaging
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #2: Report, Ignore, and Polls
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #3: Posting links
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #4: Using the Toolbar
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #5: Posting videos
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #6: Posting pictures

Here is a snip of a post by Biff. I've indicated which items can be customized, and one random factoid.

 

[HuskyNan]

In the upper, right hand side of your screen, you'll see your handle name. If you click on that, you'll see a menu.

 

[HuskyNan]

The menu looks like this:

If you click on Personal Details, you can enter a Custom Title that will show under your avatar (mine says Administrator). Some people have been bestowed Custom Titles by the moderators; they can be changed.

Signature lets you enter a quote that will appear on every post you make. These can be changed at any time.

Privacy lets you control what information you've entered on your profile page that others are allowed to see.

Preferences, well, root around in there. You can limit what you see, if it bothers you.

Alert Preferences gives you the ability to get, or not get, an alert which is the red flag that appears in the upper right hand side of the screen. Most people know you get an Alert when someone likes your post but there are other ways to get them. If you don't want to get those, you can turn the Alert off for a specific function.

 

[HuskyNan]

Avatar - ah, I get the most questions from Boneyarders regarding avatars. There are some limitations imposed by the software and people must use good judgement when choosing an avatar but, to me, the avatar is one of the best ways of introducing yourself to other Boneyarders.

If you click on Avatar, you get the following pop up box:

Important item #1 - you must upload your avatar from your hard drive; you can't link it from a web site. How to do this? If you read my thread on posting pictures, I did explain how to upload a photo from your hard drive and the process is the same here. How to get it to your hard drive? See the next post.

 

[HuskyNan]

If you have an idea of what you'd like to make your avatar, you can do a search for it in Google, say Gabby Williams or Washington Monument or sunrise or - well, you get the idea. If you do use Google, use Google Images to make your search easier. You can search for, say Gabby Williams, then click on Images at the top of the screen. Or enter images.google.com where you enter a URL and hit enter.

 

[HuskyNan]

So, I entered Gabby Williams into Google, then clicked on Images. I get a whole page of Gabby.

 

[HuskyNan]

If you find a picture you like, use your mouse and right click on the image. A menu will come up and one of the options will be Save Image As. Click on that. Another box should open asking where you would like to save the picture. This is important because you need to know where it will be. You can save it anywhere but I recommend using Pictures if this is all new to you. As you become more adept, you can set up a folder for downloads like this. Name your picture something recognizable, if that's not already the case, and click on Save.

Go to the Avatar editor and click on Browse

 

[HuskyNan]

A screen will open showing you the names of your folders on the left. Select the folder where you saved the photo, in my case, Pictures. When you click on that, you should see your newly saved photo of Gabby. Double click on Gabby's picture (or any picture on your hard drive that you'd like to use).

 

[HuskyNan]

Gabby's picture pops up in the Avatar Editor but, oh no!, the top of her head is missing! (the full size picture isn't the avatar, the one that shows in the grey box is)

 

[HuskyNan]

What to do? Click on the avatar picture, the smaller square photo, and drag it down until Gabby is centered. Then click on Okay at the bottom and you will have a brand new avatar.

 

[HuskyNan]

What is a Gravatar? It's a global avatar that follows you around on the Internet. I believe you set it up in your email account but I don't use one so I'm not 100% positive.

A couple more things about avatars - make sure the subject, in my case, Gabby, is big enough to be seen in an avatar. Some photos just won't work for this reason. Sometimes irregular shapes or huge photos won't work, either.

Just to slip into Moderator mode - NO offensive or inappropriate avatars are allowed. Please stay away from political type avatars and keep them PG-13.

One more thing - if any of this is just too much the take in, let JS, Biff, or me know and we can set any of it up for you.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Thanks Nan, JS, & Biff for this great information!
I have almost no computer skills so all this is a God-Send!

 

[Ron and Vida]

Thanks Nan
Always wanted to add an avatar photo but was too afraid to ask.
Followed your instructions and it fell out like clockwork
Even added a funny face for good measure!

 

[Bama fan]

Previous lessons
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #1: Private messaging
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #2: Report, Ignore, and Polls
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #3: Posting links
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #4: Using the Toolbar
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #5: Posting videos
Learning the Boneyard, Lesson #6: Posting pictures

Here is a snip of a post by Biff. I've indicated which items can be customized, and one random factoid.

View attachment 27299

Thank you for posting these lessons. They may be old hat to some, and all new to others; but it is all helpful and a great way to while away the Christmas break.