FAQs & Resources [Updated 3/20]

[ElindranythElindranyth]

We have gathered the most frequently asked questions posted on this forum in hopes of reducing the amount of repeat threads being created. Users can of course still continue to make threads, asking questions and seeking assistance (especially if we have not addressed them here), but for the most part, please use the resources provided in this thread. Threads created that ask questions answered in this thread will be recycled as repeat threads.

We also encourage users that are familiar with CSS and profile layout design to stick around and answer questions here. Please, and we can't stress this enough, don't PM us (Mods/Assistants) asking for profile help; read/use this thread instead.

Please DO NOT spam here or quote any big posts. Such posts will be deleted and warnings given.

[Saeline]

• So, there are two profile systems; what are the differences?
  Classic, or Old School, system uses CSS coding to customize things and gives you a lot of freedom to create whatever design you desire. The current, or v2, system makes it easier for users that don't know any CSS to customize their profile the way they want; you just click and drag stuff around. But if you do know CSS and are feeling adventurous, the new profile system can be alot easier to work with, and can be more flexible than old school.
  
  
  
• How do I make a profile?
  There are many different answers to this question. You can check out the individual sections for Old School Profiles and V2 Profiles in this sticky. In addition, there are many guides that can be found in the forum. Some of these have been listed in this thread as well, in the sixth post
  
  For a basic tutorial, read Chisas step by step CSS, and for a more advanced guide check out Jakobos CSS and Changing Document Flow article. Please note that both of these guides may be outdated.
  
  
  
• That seems too difficult; can you make me a profile?
  I'm afraid asking someone to make you profiles in the PD is not allowed. But, there are ways to request profiles from others. If you're willing to pay for a profile, visiting the Personalized Graphics Forum is a good idea. If you want something made for free, you can poke around in the Art Freebies Forum for any willing profile designers. If you're seeking someone to code an already made profile layout, the Services Forum is a good place to start looking.
  
  If you scroll down to the sixth post in this sticky, there's a list of links and resources to profile shops, CSS tutorials, profile guides and such.
  
  Please bear in mind that purchasing profiles with copyrighted images is not allowed anywhere on Gaia's servers. If you wish to have someone make you a profile with (for example) official Kingdom Hearts artwork, you'll have to ask around in the Art Freebies Forum.
  
  
  
• Can I just use your profile?
  Absolutely not. You may not use mine, Eli's or anyone else's for that matter, unless they've given you their permission. If you do use someone else's profile without their permission, you could get reported for Profile theft.
  
  
  
• Why is Profile theft bad?
  Because you're robbing someone else of the time and effort they put into creating their profiles. It is not only rude, it's disrespectful, not to mention selfish.
  
  So, please, for the sake of all profile designers, do not steal someone else's profile. Not only would it ruin the purpose of this sticky, but it would make us (the sticky moderators/helpers) very sad. D:
  
  
  
  
• How do I change between Old School and V2?
  To access your profile options, go to My Gaia -> Account. The last option in the first section is "Choose Profile" and the drop down allows you to choose between "Classic" and "Current". In this forum, Classic is generally referred to as Old School and Current is referred to as v2
  
  
  
• How do I make banners/graphics?
  Many profile designers use graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other various sources to create their profile layouts. The Art Resource sticky has links to downloads as well as tutorials (mostly for art, but you get the idea).
  
  
  
• How do I add multimedia to my Profile?
  You may enter the URL of a flash file (.swf) into your multimedia section. There are now several sites that make it extremely easy to upload or get a video to put on your profile; read o0NeMo0os guide for more information. You can also have just music, check out Demonic Lifes thread to find out how.
  
  
  
• Friends in common; what is it and how do I make it show up on my profile?
  The friends in common is a nifty little feature for Old School profiles, where you can see thumbnails of the friends you and the user whose profile you're visiting have in common!
  
  This is why it won't show up when you're visiting your own profile, because you can't really have friends in common with yourself. xD
  
  
  
• How do I disable it then?
  
  This feature often tends to take up space, so some people prefer disabling it. You can of course follow this trend, if you so wish, by simply adding this code to your profile:
  
  ______#commonFriends {display: none;}
  
  Note that this code will only work for Old School profiles, as the option doesn't exist in V2. ^__^
  
  
  
• Browser compatibility.
  One big issue that comes up alot in the PD is browser compatibility. Many people who browse Gaia do so in IE, and others in Firefox. There are also people who use browsers such as Opera or Safari. In general most things will look the same in both beforementioned browsers, but there are a few things you might run across that don't.
  
  One big thing is filters and scrollbar colors. These are codes that only work in IE based browsers. They will not work in any other browser.
  
  Another problem that people run into alot is positioning. They'll make a block positioned on top of a background image in IE, but then upon looking at it in Firefox, it's not lined up properly.
  
  One way to get around this is to use an "IE Hack":
  
  margin-left: 10px; *margin-left: 5px;
  
  The margin-left is where the left side of the block should be in Firefox, and the *margin-left is where the left side should be in IE.
  
  Another common browser compatibility is rounded corners on captions and comments in Old School. The developers designed the captions using "pseudoclasses" that IE doesn't support. So if you design your profile in IE, you won't see these little rounded corner images, but anyone using any other browser will.
  
  .caption:before, .caption:after, .caption2:before, .caption2:after{display:none;} will remove these little images.
  
  This thread covers a few other known browser compatibility issues.
  
  
  
• Someone stole my profile, how/to who do I report it?
  You can report someone for stealing your graphics, but unfortunately you cannot report someone for copying your code/concept. Code is not protected in that aspect.
  
  If someone takes your graphics and they use them as their own, please report them to one of the Profile Subforum Mods. Make sure you have proof and any other evidence available of the graphics actually belonging to you.
  
  
  
• Can my Profile be disabled? Why?
  Yes, each section (About, Details, Multimedia, Theme, Signature, etc) can be disabled by an Admin/Mod if it is found to break the rules stated on the ToS, such as PG-13 violations, copyright infringemenet, advertising, art theft, etc. The first time it costs 10 gold to re-enable it (each section), then 100, 1000, and so on. Also, your entire theme can be disabled for removing or altering the Gaia logo in the navigation bar, or for repositioning the navigation bar.
  
  
  
• I've heard of something called Profile Spotlight... what is it?
  In June last year, a new feature was added to Gaia by the name of the Featured Profile Spotlight. Every month (ok so sometimes they let it go longer than a month), the administrators choose one lucky Gaian with a spiffy profile, to add to the spotlight on the community page.
  
  
  
  These are just some of the most frequently asked questions on the forum. Feel free to post all other questions you may have in this thread and someone will try to help you as soon as possible. You can also try reading through the links and resources in the sixth post.
  
  Remember, please don't PM Moderators or Moderator Assistants for codes, etc.

[ElindranythElindranyth]

v2 is a very flexible system, giving you alot more freedom than with Old School profiles. Some of the really cool stuff may be tricky for people new to working with CSS and the v2 system, but even if you are new to working with profiles and don't know alot of CSS, you can still do alot to edit your profile.


How do I edit my profile in v2?

First, make sure your profile is set to Current. Once you've done this, you can edit your profile by viewing your profile and clicking the link in the upper right hand corner that says "Edit My Profile Layout". Using this link allows you to add and remove content, reposition content, add images, or add a background without using CSS.

How do I edit my sections in v2?

In most cases, there isn't much to edit in the sections. You can edit the header of all the sections. The comments and friends section, you can change whether the person's avatar head shows or not. This is how you add content to custom sections. This is also where you will find the place to insert the URL for your multimedia.

To edit a section, click on the word edit in the upper right hand corner of the block you want to edit.

**Note: You cannot edit the About section from the v2 backend. It will let you think you can edit it, but it won't actually save the changed you make. **

How do I use CSS in v2?

Just like with old school/classic profiles, you input your code on the Account page. Go to My Gaia > Account, and then click on "Theme" in the right hand list of links.

How do I change my background?

There are two really simple ways to change your page's background. The first doesn't take any CSS at all, and the second is just using a really simple CSS code.

No CSS: When you click "Edit My Profile Layout" a little box pops up in the lower right hand corner. At the top of this box, there is a button that says "Theme". Using this area you can add in backgrounds. You can select any of the backgrounds that Gaia has loaded up already. If you have a photobucket account, you can click the "photobucket" tab, login to your account, and then select any of the pictures from your photobucket as the background, or you can use the URL tab to add in an image as the background that you have uploaded to imageshack or found on a free background site (search google to find free background sites).

Using this process will make your background repeat if the image you select isn't large enough to cover the whole screen.


Using CSS: Again, this is really simple. Go to the Theme page as we explained previously. Insert the following code:


html, body{background: url(http://imageurlhere) no-repeat #000;}


The black stuff must be left the same. The red stuff must be changed to the URL of the image you want to use as the background. The blue stuff can be changed. In this example, the blue stuff says that the background won't repeat, and the rest of the background will be black.

For more things that you can do to the background, check out this site.

How do I change the font color on the whole page?

Put this code in your theme section:

.panel{color: #ffffff;}

That code will change all the font to white. Change the blue "hex code" to whatever color you want if you don't want white.

Click here for a list of "web safe" hex codes, or you can use the color palette in a program like Photoshop to find hex codes for specific colors.

How do I center my profile?

#columns{width: ##px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; float: none; position: relative; top: 0px;}

Replace the ## with the width you'd like. 760 is pretty standard if you want all common resolutions to be able to see the whole profile without it scrolling sideways.

How do I add in an extra section/multimedia in v2?

To add a new section, you first need to click on the content button.

Once you've done that, you'll see this box.

You can then add any of these sections in. You can add as many of each block as you'd like, though there isn't really any reason to add anything but the "custom" and the "media" blocks in multiple times. All the rest of the blocks will have the same content, no matter how many times you put them in. But with "custom" and "media" using the content editing instructions we gave earlier, you can edit the content of the blocks so that each one of these blocks has something different in it.

How do I add an image?

Again, we've got something here that has a few ways to do it. The first option is to put an image into your about section, or into a custom section using BBCode. BBCode is just the stuff you use when you want to put an image in your signature or in a post.

The other way to do it with the v2 system is by using the picture button. Just like with backgrounds, you can add in any picture from the selection Gaia has provided, you can add in images from your photobucket, or you can add in images by using their URL.

Things to keep in mind when adding images:
1) Less is more. Just because you can add in hundreds of animated livejournal icons doesn't mean you should.
2) You can't easily manipulate images with CSS that you put in with this method. So if you want to center your profile with CSS, the images won't end up centered with everything else.

How come I can't put my sections in scrolling boxes in v2? I did the overflow thing the same way I used to in old school.

There's one big difference between old school and v2. #about and .about_panel have one big difference. The first is an ID, and the second is a class. IE6 is one of the only browsers we've come across that will allow people to put scrollbars on classes. Firefox won't allow it. You have to put the overflow on the ID of the section, not the class. Each panel in an old school profile has a panel ID and a panel class that it belongs to. Most people use the panel class when they format, but you can easily find the panel ID of the section if you are wanting to put a scrollbar on the section.

OK so how do I find the panel ID?

In the source code of your profile, every block starts with a line similar to this:

<div id="id_custom_4853" class="panel custom_panel" >

In that example, the unique panel ID is id_custom_4853. So to declare any styles for that block you'd use this ID: #id_custom_4853. The easiest way to find the ID in the source code is to open the source code, hit ctrl+f, and then search for the heading of the panel you are looking for. The line I showed above will be a little bit before the heading of the panel.

[Saeline]

How do I edit my profile in old school?

Obviously, make sure you are using the old school/classic profile system (see above if you don't know how to change it). Then you can edit stuff like your profile theme or your multimedia.

So where do I put my codes then?

Your CSS codes go in the "Theme" section of your profile. To get there, click on My Gaia, then on Account, then on Theme on the right hand side.

How do I change the background of my profile?

The only way to change the background using old school profiles is to use CSS code. But don't worry, it's really simple to use. Just put the following code in your CSS box on the Theme page.


body{background: url(http://imageurlhere) no-repeat #000;}


The black stuff must be left the same. The red stuff must be changed to the URL of the image you want to use as the background. The blue stuff can be changed. In this example, the blue stuff says that the background won't repeat, and the rest of the background will be black.

For more things that you can do to the background, check out this site.

How do I change the font color on the whole page?

Put this code in your theme section:

.section{color: #ffffff;}

That code will change all the font to white. Change the blue "hex code" to whatever color you want if you don't want white.

Click here for a list of "web safe" hex codes, or you can use the color palette in a program like Photoshop to find hex codes for specific colors.

How do I center my profile?

#site{margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: ##px;}

Replace the ## with the width you'd like. 760 is pretty standard if you want all common resolutions to be able to see the whole profile without it scrolling sideways.

How do I add an extra section with old school profiles?

Adding a new section is a two part thing, and sometimes a little complicated.

First, you have to put some BBCode in your about section. Your about section needs to have a list in it.

[list=1]Content for new section here[/list]

Change the red stuff to whatever content you want to be in the new section.

Then go to your Theme page and put this code in:

#about ol{format here}

Change the red part so that it's formatted the way you want it to look. Add in backgrounds, borders, positioning etc. For more information on what you can do to your new section, check out any of the guides listed in the resources section of this thread.

KEEP IN MIND! If you move your about section around with absolute or relative positioning, and then put a scrollbar on your about section, you will not be able to make your new section appear outside of the about section. If you are planning on making your about section scroll and then have an extra section, position the about section using margin-left and margin-top instead of position: absolute or position:relative. Check out the guides listed in this thread for more information if that seems confusing to you.

I see people with more than one multimedia section. Can I do that in old school?

Unfortunately you can't. If you want to have a bunch of multimedia sections in your profile, you'll have to switch to the v2/current system.

How do I put an image on my page?

Aside from putting images in as backgrounds, the only way to do it is with BBCode, the same way you would put an image in your signature.

How do I get rid of the interests section?

If you really don't want it there, here's how you can get rid of it:
#details h3,#details hr {display:none;}
#details dl,#details dd {text-indent:-5000px;}
#info dt,#info dd,#stats dt,#stats dd {text-indent:0px;}

What about if I just want to get rid of the line between the interests and the details sections?

Then just use this part of the code:

#details hr{display: none;}

There's a blue line in my profile that I can't get rid of! What do I do?

Simply add this code:

#content #main{border: 0px;}

[ElindranythElindranyth]

When seeking help from other users with your customized profile, it is very important to be clear about the specific problem you are having. Please stick to the format below; copying and pasting the form into your posts and filling in the relevant details. When including CSS code please do not include all of your CSS; just the part that is causing you trouble. Also, please only post a link to a screenshot as opposed to embedding it in your post.

Posts that stretch the page through excessive posting of CSS or images will be removed from the sticky, as will other forms of spam.

[list=1][*][b]Browser:[/b]
[*][b]Operating System:[/b]
[*][b]Profile System:[/b]
[*][b]Problem:[/b]
[*][b]CSS Code (optional):[/b]
[*][b]Screenshot (optional):[/b][/list]

When you've received an answer to your problem, please ensure to return to your post and add something along the lines of "EDIT: Resolved" to the bottom so that people do not continue to post solutions long after your problem has been solved.

[Saeline]

Profile Guides

how to make profiles.
Making Custom Profiles
The "Official" CSS Code List
Soysauce CSS Guide

Multimedia Guides

Adding Music to Your Profile
Everything Windows Movie Maker
Extended Profile Music
Flash FAQ
Nemo's Multimedia Guide

Profile Shops

White Wishes Profiles
Cafe Dolce
N O A

Free Theme Resources
Note: OS denotes a resource that proves Old School/Classic themes, V2 denotes a resource that provides v2/Current themes

Pure Blue - OS, V2

Graphics Programs

GIMP - Free
Inkscape - Free
Paint.NET - Free

Adobe Photoshop CS2 - 30 Day Free Trial
Corel Paint Shop Pro XI - 30 Day Free Trial
Macromedia Flash Basic 8 - 30 Day Free Trial
Macrodmedia Studio 8 - 30 Day Free Trial

Image/Brush Resources
Note: some of these sites may have special terms of use if you use images or brushes provided there. Be sure to read them before using an image or a brush. We do not condone the use of resources without proper permission/credit.

Google
Google Images
stock.xchng
Deviantart
Icon Buffet

Free Image Hosts

Photobucket
Imageshack

Know of a resource you'd like to see here?
You may PM one of our forum's moderators or assistants if you know of a resource that you think is helpful that we haven't listed. You may not request that we add a resource you created. Someone else can request that we add it. Remember, however, just because you submit a resource does not mean it will be added.

[b]Resource Title[/b]:
[b]Resource Category[/b]:
[b]Reason(s) for Submission[/b]:
[b]Link to Resource[/b]:

[Mashirou]

This thread is really helpful. 3nodding Now I don't need other people to make me a profile. 4laugh

[Snow4Sale]

Wootwoot for the FAQ. :3 -Claps @ thread's new opening-

[Tainted Snowflake]

-clapclap-
Very helpful. It's very well put.

[Dream Chans]

Family and friends will always be there for you....

1. Browser: Um...???
   
2. Operating System: Um...???
   
3. Profile System: I'm using the old school profile.
   
4. Problem: If you look at my profile where there's a patch, that custom section I made is skinny and not wide.
   
5. CSS Code (optional): Um...???
   
6. Screenshot (optional):

Sorry I don't have a sreenshot button...TT TT

They will never fade away like dreams do....

[Tainted Snowflake]

{ S n o w S a y s }

» » Dream Chans: Browser means what internet are you using. For example, Internet Explorer, AOL, Mozilla Firefox?

Operating system, I believe is what computer you're using. Examples are Apple, Windows XP, Windows Vista?

[Dream Chans]

@ Snowflake

Oh, oops! ^^;; Some reason the costum section looks fine with ie but with firefox ( I mostly use ) looks weird. And with ie my borders look weird and there's no scroll thing in my about.

[iDanish]

fine fine but.. i have one question sweatdrop how do you put a playlist in a classic profile?

[Mazimux]

Thank You for posting this sticky up.