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How do I get a picture under my username? These pictures are called
avatars and can be either gif or jpg and still or animated. However, they
must be of a certain size which we'll get to later. To add or change your
avatar: 1. Go to User CP
 2.
Click on Edit Options
3. Scroll right down to the bottom of the page which appears. Click on Change
avatar (NB if you click on the More info...
link it will show you lots of existing avatars which you can choose from if you
wish - be aware, that takes a while to load!)
IGNORE the next screen which says Thankyou for updating your
avatar. It will go away in a couple of seconds leaving the page you really
want. 4. The top part of this page is self-explanatory; however, if you want
to use an avatar of your own, then scroll down to the bottom to the section
marked Custom avatars
5. Check the yes
"radio button" (which is actually the answer to Use custom avatar). See
the note under Use custom avatar? Here are the limits for the size of
your avatar. So you need to be able to make sure your image will fit the
criteria - there are several ways of doing this.
You can either open the image in your image editor and use the tools there or
Navigate to the folder on your hard drive where the image is stored then right-click on the image and select Properties (or hold down the
ALT key and click/double click as required and the Properties page
will appear). You will then be able to find the width, height and file size of
the image - exactly where depends on which version of Windows you are using...in
XP the Properties box looks like this
The width and height dimensions are on the Summary tab. Another handy
way is that if you are looking at an image on a web page, then right-click
on the image and (assuming that the web designer hasn't disabled right click)
and then select
Properties. You will then see this
For now, let us just assume that the image is within the required sizes (we'll
look at resizing pictures later), so You can enter an URL of your avatar. The easiest way to find
the URL of an image on the web that you want to use is to look at it's
Properties as above - you can see there the address which you can highlight and
copy, and then paste it into the box alongside You can enter an URL of
your avatar which you can see below. Make sure that the end result contains
http://www. only once (note that some urls do NOT have www in them). You
can also enter the address of an image which you have uploaded to some
webspace of your own - to find out how to use your own webspace, you will need
to find the details from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) as to where your
webspace is and how you access it. Many of them offer a file management upload
system which will be adequate for your needs.
Alternatively,
You can upload an avatar from your computer - simply click the Browse
button and navigate to where you've stored the image file on your hard drive.
Then click Submit Modifications and you will be taken to a page which
shows your new avatar. Note that this avatar will now show alongside every
message you have posted in the Chat Forums (avatars and signatures are not
displayed in the News forums which are intended for serious debate).
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