Name
The next section on this page is
where you can input personal
information such as your first and
last names and your nickname, and
choose how you want your name to be
displayed publicly. Fill in the
boxes with the information
requested.
Contact Info
In this section, you provide your
e-mail address and other contact
information to tell your visitors
who you are and where they may
contact you.
Note that E-mail is the only
required field here. This e-mail
address is the one WordPress uses to
notify you when you have new
comments or new user registrations
for your blog. The e-mail address
that you signed up with is already
listed here for you; if you’d like
to change it, you need to do so on
the General Settings page.
Aside from e-mail, you can provide
your ID for various Internet chat
programs such as Yahoo! IM, AIM (AOL
Instant Messenger), and
Jabber/Google Talk.
About Yourself
In this section, you can provide a
little biography, as well as change
the password for your blog. Figure
3-9 shows this section in detail.
The two areas of this section are
✓
Biographical Info: Type your
short bio in the text box provided
here. Figure 3-9 shows that I
provided a few details about myself
and things I like to do (when I’m
not blogging, that is). This
information can be shown publicly if
you are using a theme that displays
your bio - so be creative!
✓
New Password: When you want
to change the password for your
blog, type your new password in the
first text box (refer to Figure
3-9). To confirm your new password
choice, type it again in the second
text field.
Directly below the two New Password
text boxes is a little password
helper. WordPress.com assists you in
creating a secure password by giving
you a tip about the password you
have chosen. WordPress.com alerts
you if the password is too short or
not secure enough (by telling you
that it’s Bad).
When you create a new password, use
a combination of letters, numbers,
and symbols to make it hard for
anyone to guess what it is (for
example, aty89!#4j). When you have
created a password that WordPress
thinks is a good one, it says the
password is Strong.
Change your password frequently. I
cant recommend this practice
strongly enough. Some people on the
Internet make it their business to
attempt to hijack blogs for their
own malicious purposes. If you
change your password monthly, you
lower your risk by keeping the
hackers guessing.
When you finish setting all the
options on the left side of the Your
Profile and Personal Options page,
don’t forget to click the Update
Profile button to save your changes.
My Picture
Want to show the world your pretty
picture? In the My Gravatar section
of the Your Profile and Personal
Options page, you can upload a
picture (or a gravatar, which
is a graphical image of you) of
yourself or an image that represents
you.
The picture/avatar that you insert
into your WordPress.com is used in
several ways:
✓
The WordPress.com Blog of the Day
page at http://botd.word press.com/top-posts,
which lists the top posts from the
top blogs of the day: If your
blog is included in these lists, a
smaller version of the picture youve
uploaded to your profile appears
next to the listing.
✓
The WordPress.com Hawt
Post (or hot post) on its main page
at http://wordpress.com: If the
WordPress spotlight shines in your
direction, your picture will be
displayed here for your own 15
minutes of WordPress.com fame.
✓
The WordPress.com
directory (by topic) of its
community blogs: This directory
is called the Tags page (http://wordpress.com/tags).
Bloggers on WordPress.com can tag
their posts with keywords that help
define the topics of their posts;
WordPress.com collects all those
tagged posts and sorts them by name
on the Tags page.
At the On the Tag: Blogging page
(http://wordpress.com/tags/
blogging), for example, you find the
most recent posts that WordPress.
com bloggers have made on the topic
of blogging. If your blog appears in
this directory, so does a thumbnail
of your picture.
Follow these steps to insert a
picture or avatar into your profile:
1.
Choose the image you want to attach
to your profile, and save it to your
computer.
To be safe in your image selection,
be sure to upload an image that is
at least 128 pixels wide and 128
pixels tall: 128 x 128. Later in
these steps, you see how you can
crop a larger image to the perfect
size.
2.
In the My Gravatar section of the
Profile page, click the Change Your
Gravatar link.
The Gravatar.com window appears
where you click the Upload a New
Image from Your Computer link that
opens the Select File from Your
Computer window.
3. Click the Browse button and
select an image from your computer.
4. Click the Next button.
No matter what size image you
chose, the Gravatar.com page allows
you to crop your image to the
correct size and lets you decide
which part of your image to use for
your picture display. When you click
the Next button, the crop image page
appears, and you can crop (cut) your
chosen picture to the right size to
be used as an avatar or icon.
5. Use the crop tool to highlight
the area of the picture that you
want to remain after cropping.
In Figure 3-10, the box with a
dotted line (the crop tool) outlines
the image Ive chosen to use. This
dotted outline indicates the size
the picture will be when I’m done
cropping it. You can move that
dotted box around to choose the area
of the image you want to use as your
avatar. The Gravatar.com crop tool
gives you two previews of your
cropped image on the right side of
the window: Small Preview and Large
Preview.
6. Click the Crop and Finish!
button.
The Choose a Rating page opens,
where you can choose a rating for
your
new Gravatar.
7. Choose a rating.
The rating system works very much
like the movie rating system were
all familiar with: G, PG, R, and X.
A G rating means that your Gravatar
is suitable for all ages, whereas an
X rating means that your Gravatar
contains some unmentionables that
you would not want any kids to see.
Use your absolute best judgment
here!
8. Choose an e-mail address.
You can assign your Gravatar to a
particular e-mail address so that
your
Gravatar images appear on any blog
you comment on, provided you use
your assigned e-mail address to do
so.
When youre done, you get a message
from Gravtar.com that says Your new
Gravatar is now being applied.
9. Click the X in the upper right
corner of the window to return to
the Profile page in your
WordPress.Com administration panel.
The Profile page now displays your
newly uploaded Gravatar.
You can change your picture any time
you want by revisiting the Profile
page and following these steps to
upload a new picture.
Getting Help
I would be remiss if I didnt mention
some of the places on the Internet
you can visit to find more
information on using WordPress.com
(see Table 3-1) - beginning with the
super bunch of users in the
WordPress.com community.
Resource Description Location
WordPress.com
Forums These forums, provided to the
community by WordPress.com, are
populated by users who help users.
Sometimes, WordPress.com developers
and staff members also provide help
through these forums.
WordPress Codex
This comprehensive online document
repository covers everything
WordPress - not just WordPress. com.
You have to search and dig a little
to find what you need, but you can
find some valuable nuggets of
information here, especially for new
users.
Help This little link appears in the
topright corner of every page in
your WordPress.com Administration
panel.
http://word press.com/ forums
http://codex. wordpress.org/
First_Steps_ With_WordPress
Click this link, and you are taken
to the WordPress.com FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) page at http://faq.
wordpress.com.
