stillplayswithbarbies
07-17-2003, 11:42 PM
If you have an AOL account, you have a place to host your avatar. AOL gives everyone space for each screen name to store files and/or to build a homepage.
First you need a picture to use. It has to be square in shape, not rectangular, so you will need to crop it using some sort of software that probably came with your camera. It's best to just crop out a closeup of baby's face, since the avatar is small.
Sign on to AOL and go to keyword FTP
Click on See My FTP Space
Click on Upload
Type in the name of your file, the same name it has on your computer, ending in ".jpg"
Click on Continue
Click on Select File
Browse to the file that is your picture and select it.
Click on Send
Your file is now on AOL.
Now you want to go update your profile to tell it where to find your avatar. Go back to the main board where it is listing all of the forums, and click on User Menu in that top row. (I'll bet you probably didn't even notice that row up there, I didn't at first)
Over on the left, click on "Edit Your Profile"
Place the cursor in the space that says "Avatar Image" (if there is already something there, clear it out first with the delete key). You want to type the URL for the picture you just uploaded to AOL.
The URL for a picture hosted at AOL looks like this:
http://members.aol.com/screenname/filename
Just put your screen name in where it says "screenname" and the name of your file that you typed in when you uploaded it, including the ".jpg" in where it says filename. (note that capital letters are important, if you capitalized any letters when you uploaded, you must do the same here)
Click on Update at the bottom of the page.
Now go back and post another reply to your message and see if it worked. If you see just an X where your avatar should be, wait a few minutes and hit reload and see if it shows up. For some reason it takes a few minutes, or maybe more than one post, I don't know which, to show up.
If your avatar looks squished up or funny shaped, it is because your original picture was not square. Go back and crop it again, or find someone who can do this for you if you don't have the software or don't know how.
...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03
First you need a picture to use. It has to be square in shape, not rectangular, so you will need to crop it using some sort of software that probably came with your camera. It's best to just crop out a closeup of baby's face, since the avatar is small.
Sign on to AOL and go to keyword FTP
Click on See My FTP Space
Click on Upload
Type in the name of your file, the same name it has on your computer, ending in ".jpg"
Click on Continue
Click on Select File
Browse to the file that is your picture and select it.
Click on Send
Your file is now on AOL.
Now you want to go update your profile to tell it where to find your avatar. Go back to the main board where it is listing all of the forums, and click on User Menu in that top row. (I'll bet you probably didn't even notice that row up there, I didn't at first)
Over on the left, click on "Edit Your Profile"
Place the cursor in the space that says "Avatar Image" (if there is already something there, clear it out first with the delete key). You want to type the URL for the picture you just uploaded to AOL.
The URL for a picture hosted at AOL looks like this:
http://members.aol.com/screenname/filename
Just put your screen name in where it says "screenname" and the name of your file that you typed in when you uploaded it, including the ".jpg" in where it says filename. (note that capital letters are important, if you capitalized any letters when you uploaded, you must do the same here)
Click on Update at the bottom of the page.
Now go back and post another reply to your message and see if it worked. If you see just an X where your avatar should be, wait a few minutes and hit reload and see if it shows up. For some reason it takes a few minutes, or maybe more than one post, I don't know which, to show up.
If your avatar looks squished up or funny shaped, it is because your original picture was not square. Go back and crop it again, or find someone who can do this for you if you don't have the software or don't know how.
...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03