Forum avatars and icons.

[WordWolf]

I figure it's about time to run this subject for the new people.

I think some people don't know how to select an avatar.

The easiest way is to be logged in,

select "My Controls", (up and right)

then "Edit Avatar Settings" (down and left, under "Personal Profile")

then look at "pre-installed avatars."

Go to "choose an avatar from one of our base galleries",

pick which gallery (there's 4 in this menu), and "go".

You can go thru all 4 galleries, and hopefully you'll find one

you like and isn't being used by someone else.

(You CAN use one someone else is using, but people get

attached to their avatars, and people stop and can get confused

if you use the same one as someone else, and so on.)

You can also use an avatar of your OWN.

In my case, my avatar was designed and drawn for me by someone else.

This takes a bit of work.

If you don't have the pic you want, you can wander around online and

find one and download it to your computer.

Once you have the pic you want, chances are it's too big to use as an avatar.

So, you'll need to edit the thing down.

Unless you're already good with editing images, you won't be ready to

fiddle with image-editing software like Photoshop or the GIMP.

That means taking a program like Picasa 2 and shrinking the image down,

with a degree of experimentation.

If those people who are good at this sort of thing were to chime in,

this would be a good idea.

[Galen]

Cool

[Sudo]

Wordwolf,

I'm good at this.

sudo (feeling all warm inside by helping out)

[pond]

yeah

mine looks cheap next to johnny Lingos now.

thanks .

ever see a pink pond before?

[WordWolf]

WordWolf,

I'm good at this.

Great.

Since I'm not, I can only take the new people so far.

Many of them-especially if they were ex-twi-- may be hampered by

technophobia or lack of experience.

Practice and facility will help a little with both.

My instructions for picking something off the provided galleries will work

fine for those who find EXACTLY what they're looking for.

For everyone else, it's better to have something that suits them better.

I know that someone can find any of all sorts of images by going to a website

that provides avatars (I forget whose avatar here is an ad for one),

or they can find one themselves by any of several methods.

One is to go to http://www.google.com ,

then click on "images",

then to type in what they're looking for,

in quotes if it's something where there are many possible results.

For example, if they want a picture of, say, Minnie Mouse,

they'd type in "minnie mouse" in quotes.

Then they'd find a bunch of images, and their pages.

Next, they'd click on the one they wanted,

go to its page,

then go to the image on the hostpage,

right-click on it,

select "save image as",

name it and specify where they want to save the image to,

then hit "save".

Now they have the image on their computer,

but need to trim it down to fit the avatar gallery.

They can tell this by going to the menu the image in in,

then pointing their cursor at it.

They'll then see the dimensions and the overall size of the file.

According to the forum's specifications,

the height can be no taller than 90 pixels,

the width can be no wider than 90 pixels,

and the overall file size can't exceed 50 KB.

The image would then have to be edited to fit in the specifications.

In my case, my avatar didn't fit in that size, so eventually I had to

work out how to trim down the height, width AND file size.

I know I used Picasa 2 at someone here's recommendation,

which is downloadable for free at

http://picasa.google.com/

by clicking on "free download".

Is this the free program you'd recommend that new people

should attempt to use?

Feel free to explain any method using any software you see fit.

The best one for the new, confused person, however, might be

something simple AND free, which, AFAIK, is true of Picasa 2.

Edited August 3, 2006 by WordWolf

[WordWolf]

yeah

mine looks cheap next to johnny Lingos now.

thanks .

ever see a pink pond before?

Your avatar is FINE.

If you want a DIFFERENT avatar, though, there's nothing wrong with getting a new one.

[Belle]

When you find a picture that you want, download it and save it to your computer.

This is how you do that....

Find the picture that you want

Like, say the one on this page Avatari

Right click on it and choose save image as

Save it to your computer and remember where you saved it

Then - log into GSpot

Go to My Controls

Go to edit avatar settings It's on the left side in the Personal Profile section near the bottom

The very bottom of that window says upload a new image from your computer

Click on the button that says browse

It's gonna open up a window that shows the files on your computer

Scroll around till you find the picture you saved in the above section

Click on that file

Click OK

And you should be set! :)

If you get an error message or something....write it down so we can tell maybe where the problem might be. If the picture is too big it'll need to be shrunk down and one of us can help with that too.

[Sudo]

Wordwolf,

Just lookie at all the new avatars that someone has just put up. Both in the base area and community. Some of 'em I even like!

sudo

[WordWolf]

Just bringing this up for the new folks.

If someone's having trouble finding a new avatar, we might even be able to help out...

[WordWolf]

Just bringing this up for the new folks.

If someone's having trouble finding a new avatar, we might even be able to help out...

[Ham]

Various animals seem to be fairly popular..

:)