Changing Your Avatar/Profile Photo

The site software automatically creates an avatar for you based on a random (?) color and the first character in your display name. Many members like to select their own avatar, however, and that is one of the key methods by which members can personalize their account and create visual identity within the community.

 

There are two methods for customizing your avatar. The first, shown here, is to use an image in your B&C albums. The second, which can be seen if you click the "Next Page" button that appears at the top and bottom of this article, is to use an image from your device.

 

B&C albums are free and easy to create. If you don't have your own gallery album(s), you can use any image in any other members' gallery albums, but it's common courtesy to get permission first. When you use an image in the galleries, the file size can be much larger than if you use an image from your device.

 

For this tutorial, I will change my avatar twice; first changing the avatar to an image in another member's gallery, then changing it back to standard avatar.

 

First, you need to have an image that is online. Personally, I recommend using your own gallery here at the B&C, which you can create for free. You can use any online image, however, including those in albums that aren't yours (but it is a best practice to not use someone else's image without their permission).

 

For my first example, I'll be using this image, which can be found in an album that belongs to @Cris R. If you're looking at the image in the album, it will probably look something like this:

 

When you mouseover the image display area, however, you'll see the Image Tools button appear in the bottom right corner of that area:

 

1. Click on the dropdown arrow to see the image tools dialog box appear:

 

2. Click on "Set as" to see another dialog box appear:

 

3. Click on "Set as my profile photo" to select the image as your avatar/profile photo:

 

That's it - 3 clicks (not counting getting to the image in the first place).

 

You'll see the image appear in the upper left corner of the main screen next to your display name. If you want to see it larger, however, all you have to do is open your profile page:

 

Reverting to my standard image will be shown in brief.

 

First, you can find the image here. It is in my Avatars album.

 

1-3. Simply click the three choices identified previously:

 

...and your avatar is updated:

 

---

 

The site software automatically creates an avatar for you based on a random (?) color and the first character in your display name. Many members like to select their own avatar, however, and that is one of the key methods by which members can personalize their account and create visual identity within the community.

 

There are two methods for customizing your avatar. One method, shown here, is to use an image from your device. The other method, which can be seen if you click the "Previous Page" button that appears at the top and bottom of this article, is to use an image in your B&C albums.

 

Note that this method limits the size of your image to 102 Kb, so if you want to use a larger image, you'll want to use an image in your gallery.

 

First, open your profile page. Click on the image icon that appears at the lower left corner of your current profile picture/avatar.

 

This will open the Profile Photo dialog box.

 

Click the Choose Single File button.

 

Find the image file that you want on your device and save/select it. If the image file size is too large, you'll get an error message.

 

Once you successfully select an image of the appropriate size, you'll be returned to the Profile Photo dialog box with your selected image showing.

 

Click the Continue button.

 

The Adjust size tab will appear.

 

Drag the handles to adjust the size and placement of the box to your desire.

 

Click the Save button.

 

You have a shiny new personal photo/avatar.