How To Spice Up Your MySpace Page

Let's get started with some music, my personal favorite. You can go to your edit profile page and delete your original song choice if you want to get a player. There are several sites to visit to get a music player that will hold more than the one song. I will introduce you to a project playlist song list creator. I think the players are sleek and the song choices are varied and numerous. Open a separate browser window (the tab up under the address bar) and search for song lists, players, or play lists, choose a playlist builder or song project site.

Welcome to the playlist creator site. Click on the my account tab, then 'click here' to create a free account. Follow the fields on the page, click create new account. Step 2 is a short free offer section that you can fill out or click no thanks, continue to my account. Now, we log in and let's make a playlist. You can come back to this page another time and upload a photo, and set up your profile page. It will be great practice, so save this page as a favorite.

Choose click here to search for music and type in the bar an artist name, song title, a combination of both, or even just a word to get a variety of ideas for song choices.

Once you find a song to add to your playlist, check to make sure it plays nicely by clicking the green arrow. If you are happy with the sound, click the plus sign. If you forget to check the song, you can always play it here. This will take you to 'click here to create a playlist' and success, you have added your first song! Click continue if you would like more songs. Just keep with the steps, type an artist or song, view, listen, add, continue.

When you have added all the songs that you want, click go to my playlists instead of continue. Click on the name of your playlist. Here you have the option to arrange your songs, delete them, or add to your list. Make sure to save changes when you move the song order around before you go to delete or add a song or you will have to rearrange your list again. There are options below your playlist for sharing your playlist. Choose generate code to copy and paste your playlist into your MySpace edit profile section under any empty box you have, or choose post to MySpace. Follow the instructions listed there. You can post any of your playlists to many other sites, by choosing the post to MySpace option.

When you start adding more than one item code in each box of the edit profile section, take care. Always be sure to leave spaces between the codes. And with a code for a graphic, player, video, any code that will take up a limited space, not your profile code and not a contact table code, but any code that is going to create an image in a set area, you will type at the very end a small HTML code to create a space break. This is done with no spaces, touching the very last character of your source code. I am going to type this with spaces because it will not show up on an HTML compatible screen as the type, but it will actually create a space and it no longer shows up. OK, type <> all together with no spaces touching the last of the code like a tail. Preview your profile to check and view if there is enough room between the shown items. If not, go back and add one more set of <>. Then, save and view your profile. This will help you add two or three separate codes and items in each one of the edit boxes but keep your page uniform looking, not all bunched together. Also, some items if run together will not function. If you come across a malfunction, try to put the new item near something else. If two items are animated or interactive, they may not sit well together. Spacing these items in separate boxes is the best plan to prevent any future problems. If you ever forget which code goes where, go view your profile, and see where they are and count the number of items per the section, if it is the second item, delete the second code, again, this is a great reason why you left spaces between the codes.

Now that you have a good sized music selection, let's visit sparkle tags. There are over 4000 images and 83 different categories of images on this site. Again, feel free to use your search engine for MySpace images, but this is a great site to get going with. I will walk you through posting a Thanks For The Add comment to post on your new friends comments area on their profile. First, choose one of the categories for Thanks graphics. You might get an ad showing but you have the option to skip it. Scroll down and find the one that you would like to use, on this site just moving your cursor over the code will highlight it, and right click and copy. This is becoming quite comfortable now, isn't it? Go to your MySpace page, click on the friends picture to go to their profile page, scroll down to the add comment link, click it, place your saved code in the add comment box by either Ctrl v or by right clicking and pasting. If you want to add text as well to your comment, type it either before or after your code, being sure to leave spaces between the text and code. Click post comment. You will then view the comment you wish to post to be sure it is the one you wanted, and click to post again. Some pages you will need to complete the "capcha" box. View your friends profile and see what you have posted, now some friends will wish to approve the comment before it gets posted, with these friends you will need to wait until later to view your own comment, but be excited for yourself that you now can post to all of your friends comment boxes with graphics instead of just typing text. Also, a heads up, some friends have their comments set to only accept text. Not much fun, but some comments can slow a pages loading time.

On to polls, clocks, and generally nifty graphics. There are a few very good sites to find these items. For all of the clocks and generators of all kinds search myspace generators. They are listed under generators because they are animated but they are put on your site exactly the same way as a graphic. No worries for you!

Bulletins and Blogs are two very different types of postings. A bulletin is a posting that you will send to your entire friend list. A blog stays right on your page and each friend has the option to either come to visit your profile and read it or subscribe to your blog postings and get notified as you post a new one. Read others bulletins and blogs to see what others do here.

I saved the very best thing to add to your page (next to music, of course) for last. The almighty Guestbook! This is the most fun for you because every time you view your own profile, you can see the pictures and comments your friends put on your now signed guestbook. Go to slide.com, sign up for a free membership, and click on make a guestbook. You can also create a slide show here to post on your site! Slide has brilliantly generic and basic instruction from this point, I do not even need to say it here. Follow the instruction from Slide and from our steps of copy and paste before and you have got yourself an awesome way for friends to leave a bit of themselves on your page forever! Comments get bumped down by newer ones as time rolls on.

Well, I am proud of your page without even seeing it yet! Awesome job, look me up or Google me, make me a long time friend and let me know if I can help out with your pages. You are well on your way to mastering HTML, even though you think you have just learned one small code, you have been seeing them. Getting comfortable with the look of an HTML code is half the battle. My next article will cover basic HTML codes. Stay tuned for "Basic HTML Codes With Tips and Tricks".

by Stephanie Haile AKA Wavecritter AKA Surfcritter