Most of you are used to visiting neighborhood homes aglow with beautiful lights and decorations during the holidays. On DoodleKisses.com we are taking a different spin on things. Instead of visiting lit up homes we are going to visit the fancied up personal pages of our members for a fun holiday contest!!!
Get out your glitter, ribbons, and bows! Put up some beautiful pictures! Turn on the music! IT'S TIME TO DECORATE YOUR PAGES!!!
Make your page sparkle and stand out and show some serious holiday spirit! Start decorating today but don't make speed your top priority because Wednesday through Sunday everyone will have a chance to look at your masterpiece. The earlier you get done the more people will see your page, but you have a number of days before voting begins on Monday December 15 through Wednesday December 17.
When you are confident your page is "done" send the message and I will take a photo of your page so we have a reference come voting time. If you already know how to decorate...skip the guidelines (in regular font) and jump to the bottom of the page where the font turns bold again for final info
I have some instructional videos that I will be able to upload later today to help those of you who are new to changing page layout--but until then read the guidelines below (might want to print them out first):
--to change the look of your page click on "my page." Then underneath your profile photo you have the option to "change my photo or theme." Click on "theme."
--that will take you to a page where you can choose from several page layouts and color schemes.
--you can do the most if you choose a simple theme, because then you can change the colors and design yourself.
--you can change the font of the Headings as well as the body text
--you can change the colors of the sidebars and the header and virtually anything on the page using the buttons on the theme page.
--you can insert photos into the header by clicking on the image button located next to the header colors. Keep in mind that if you use a very large photo it will take up the whole page and you won’t see anything but the top of it in the header. You may have seen how some people have pictures lined up in their header. The way to do that is to resize your photo to the height of the header. Or create a photo that is the height and width of the header. If you insert one photo into the header that is small enough all you’ll see is that one photo. If you want it to repeat you’ll have to click the drop down menu underneath the photo button and select “repeat vertically” or “repeat horizontally.”
--you can also insert photos into the side of your page similar to the way you insert photos into the header but this option is below the header options on the theme page.
--you can also insert a photo as the background to your whole page—just be sure you select “transparent” as the background color so that the photo will show through.
--once you have made the appropriate changes you want, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click save. It will take some time for the page to load so be patient. When it has completed the job it will take you to your new “my page” and you can see if the look is what you wanted or not. If you’re satisfied with the results excellent. If not just go back and play with the colors and pictures some more.
--remember to keep your pages easy to read. In other words choose a background and text color that do not clash or meld together to make things unreadable.
--to add music to your page, look in the left column of your page and you will see a small area that says “add music.” Click there and then upload songs just as you upload photos. You will have to have your songs in the MP3 format on your computer for them to upload properly. You can set your music player so that the songs start automatically and give a fun holiday ambience to your page.
--every personal page has one text box, usually in the center column, in which you can put as many photos and widgets and clocks and countdown tickers, etc. as you want. Keep in mind, that if you insert photos into your text box they should be of a reasonable size. If your photos are of a very large file size, your page will be very slow to load and make it difficult to visit and enjoy it.
I hope this brief description of how to decorate your page has been helpful—feel free to look around at other members' pages and ask questions. Even though this is a contest, I want this to be a learning opportunity for anyone interested in sprucing up their profile page. If you have helpful hints, tips, website suggestions for where to get widgets and pretty things please share that in this discussion.
I'm sooo confused!! I tried to insert photo into header but it was too large. So I made it 955 pixels which is what is written beside header instructions but still too large!!
I tried photobucket but that didn't seem to work either.
And my music is in itunes. How is this transferred?
Yikes!! I'm wasting soo much time and my page still looks the same!!
Help!!
In iTunes, you have to right-click the song, and pick "convert to mp3" (I think that's the wording). It will make a copy of the song, but in mp3 format instead of iTunes format. Then you can upload that mp3 onto the DK site. If you purchased the song from iTunes, it might not let you do it. If it was your own CD that you added to iTunes, it should let you do it.
Leslie, thanks for the itunes info. I did purchase from iTunes the songs I wanted to use and it won't allow me to convert them but I tried on ones I downloaded from cd & it worked. Thanks for your input.
955 pixels wide is the width of the entire header from end to end.... But it is only about 200 pixels TALL. So you have to make your photo 200 pixels tall and only a teeny bit wider depending on the photo. Look at my page...see the small photos along the top? THAT is the size you need...which is about 200 Tall by 200-some wide. But what I did was create an image that was the full size of the header and then put tiny photos into that image...
Adina, thanks for your help. I resized my photos ( I use microsoft photo editor) and it works. Yeah!! Also now that the missing video #2 is up & running that clears up a lot. Even though I'm slow at this it's fun. I've also added lots more pics w/tags. Thanks again for all you do.
I don't know how to use MP3 files, nor do I have any so I used a free flash player embedded html. Is this against the rules for the contest. I want to make sure not to cheat or make things hard for you or the viewers. Just let if I need to change up anything.
Thanks a bunch for your work, I love Doodle Kisses
Pam, Dandi's mom
no it is okay to use HTML embed codes to add whatever you want (within family friendly decency)...can you remind me what your question was that I responded to about Mp3's?