Setting up Your Avatar ~*~ Setting up Your Signature

Signatures can be:
• 200 pixels high
• 500 pixels wide (if it includes a large image, otherwise long text will wrap)

• No foul language please unless you use $%^ or whatever to edit it.
• No offensive emblems such as swastikas, etc. or porn/adult related imagery 
(this goes for avatars as well please, thanks)
• No verbal harassment of other members unless it is joking and the other person is cool with it.

These sig rules appy to all forums. 

That said, let's set up your avatars and signatures.

Avatars

The avatar is the picture that appears under your name on the left every time you post on Ultimate Metal (from here on known as UM)..here's mine:

To set up your own avatar, you'll need an image that's 100x100 pixels or smaller, either on your hard drive, or on the web somewhere (if it's on the web, please find the url now so you'll have it ready when you need it). Another option is to choose from the assortment of stock smiley face type avatars that are offered..we'll get to those later.

Across the top half of the UM forum window, you'll see text links that say User CP, FAQ, Members List, etc.
Click on the User CP link, as shown here.

That leads you to your User Control Panel window, where you can control the settings for your UM account.
Down the left side of the page, you'll see links that say Edit Signature, Edit Email & Password, Edit Profile, Edit Options, etc.; we'll be back to this window to set up your signature, but for now, click on the Edit Avatar link, as shown here.

That leads you to your Edit Avatar page. Here you can see the assortment of stock smiley face avatars mentioned earlier  that you can choose from. If you like these, then your job here is simple, just click the radio button beneath the one you like (as seen in arrow 1 below), & then click the Save Changes button (arrow 2 below), and you are all set.

Assuming that you want a different avatar, here's how to do it.

To use an avatar that's on the web, make sure it's no larger than 100x100 pixels, or 48.8KB, whichever is smaller (you can do this with a picture on the web by right clicking it, & clicking Properties). Also, it needs to be noted that images on geocities, yahoo, angelfire, tripod and other assorted free webservers usually can't be remotely linked, so don't even bother; you'll need to save the picture to your hard drive from there and upload it to UM (instructions on that in just a sec).

So providing that your image is workable, type the url into the box (arrow 1 below), then click the Save Changes button as shown here (arrow 2), and you should be all set.

You can post in the Test Your Avatar/Signature Here thread on UM to test it out; if it doesn't work, double check the size, & make sure it's not on a server that doesn't allow remote linking.

~*~*~

To upload your own avatar, again make sure the size is correct, & then use the Browse button to find the image's location on your hard drive, as shown here.

A window will open that'll let you choose the location on your hard drive, as shown here.

Once you've found the location of the desired image, click the Open button, and then the Submit Modifications button, as shown here, and you should be good to go.

You can post in the Test Your Avatar/Signature Here thread to test it out; if it doesn't work, double check the size & make sure it's within specifications.

Signatures

Your signature is the text or image that appears below your posts on UM; here's mine:

You can use an image, or text for your signature (or both), I'll show you how to do both. Bear in mind that, unlike avatars, images used in signatures have to be on the web & be remote linked, hence images on free webservers such as those mentioned above will not work. If you want to use your own graphic & don't know where to put it, look into setting up a free account at an image hosting site such as PhotoBucket, & host it there.

Again, you'll want to go to the top half of the UM forum window, where you'll see the text links that say User CP, FAQ Members List, etc. Click on the user cp link, as shown here.

Once again this will bring you to your User Control Panel window.
Down the left side of the page, you'll see links that say Edit Signature, Edit Email & Password, Edit Profile, Edit Options, etc.; this time you'll want to click the Edit Signature link, as shown here.

That leads you to your Signature page, where you'll see a text box, as shown here, where you can format your signature as you want it to be. If you want a text signature, it's as simple as typing the text into the text box, using the tools at the top to format the look of it (font, color, etc.) as you wish.

Click the Preview Signature button to test it out until it's the way you want it to be; once you're happy with how it looks, click the Save Signature button and you're all set.

~*~*~

For a signature that's an image, click the Image button as shown here.

A box will pop up, as shown here, will open where you can type in the url of the image you wish to use.

Type in the desired url, click the OK button, and your image will appear in the signature text window, as shown here using the UM banner as an example.

Once you're happy with it, click the Save Signature button, and there you have it; your signature is now complete!
Again, you can post in the Test Your Avatar/Signature Here thread to test it out.

Hope this helps you out;
if you have any further questions, you can find me moderating the Introduce Yourself! forum.