Add My Banner

OK so my design taste may be tad off. No worries. If members want to look at pimping their profile pages that's more than welcome, it allows other members to also see your taste etc. I can see by many of the profiles though that not many folks have cottoned on to the fact that things are fully customizable. This weeks example will show you how to ad a banner to your profile page and also how to move elements around.

Moving Elements:
By scrolling down your Profile Page you will see something called a Text Box. By hovering your cursor over the little black square in the corner of that text Box (and also for profile data etc) you will see that a movement indicator is shown along with a heavy dotted outline of that element. By then dragging you can place that Text Box wherever you want on your Profile Page within the central column, it won't squeeze into the narrow left or right columns for example. I generally find that it works well by placing it directly underneath the Status Update dialog box. You can see mine is occupied by the iTunes Buttons for the App.

Place your cursor over this small black square on the Text Box

You can then drag the Text Box to certain areas of your Profile Page. I put mine under the Status Update dialog box for example. By checking out My Profile you will see that I currently have an array of iTunes App store buttons for folks looking to buy the iDive Sharks iPhone App.

Let's say I wanted to change this and place a banner in its place and then link that to another site, page or location.

Follow these simple steps to place your own Banner on your profile page.

Step 1: Design your Banner. The banner you want to place here should measure max 523 x 88px

Step 2: Open up the Text Box by clicking on the Edit tab in the right hand corner of the box.

Step 3: Click the small black Camera Icon which will then open a dialog box for you to browse your computer to select the banner for insertion. Remember Jpeg, GIF or PNG file formats only.

Step 4: You will now see the following text appear in your dialog box (this is for the banner I am uploading).

OK, now compare the two. The first code is what you see once you upload your banner. The second reflects the link that you have placed. The most important code parts here are the beginning segments. Although it looks complex the only parts of the code that you are concerned with is the text that appears between the first set of < > indicators. Take a look the difference. The p style= has been replaced with the a href= code and then the full web domain location you wish to link to goes between the two sets of inverted commas.

To round of and complete the link or to 'anchor' the link you need to then turn to the last set of < > containers and change the /p to /a this will then complete the operation.



RULES: Please take advantage of this but be warned that anyone placing immoral content on their pages will be immediately blocked from the site. Also, please DO NOT flood the boards with "Look at my Profile" messages. If people want to check out your profile then create a reason for them to do so.

How to get folks to check your Profile Page?
One way to generate that kind of interest is to create content for the site! By writing a great blog item or discussion point, or by submitting a great image or video people seeing that will immediately have their curiosity piqued as to who posted the item. Everything posted on the site carries a link to the Profile page of the poster. Hence the easy solution for people wanting to check you out is to click that link, in doing so they will see you banner and presto, you have potentially attracted someone to your corporate website!

Maximum banner size to be placed: 523 x 88px

Cheers,
Mark.