This tutorial is to help you complete your Profile Page. There are (3) three sections on your Profile Page that you'll want to utilize to maximize the value and benefits of your page. The areas are "About Us", "Areas of Expertise", and "Testimonials".

It's good to have an idea of what you want your "Final" Profile page to look like when it's completed. I will breakdown the details of how all the tools and options work, but it will be up to you to be creative and decide how you want your final page to appear. Take a look at some of the samples provided in THIS POST! In my opinion, these sections are what can make your Profile Page your ULTIMATE MASTERPIECE!

THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS APPLY TO ALL THREE AREAS ON YOUR PROFILE PAGE. EACH AREA HAS THE EXACT SAME FEATURES AND TOOLS TO WORK WITH, WE'LL USE THE "ABOUT US" SECTION FOR THIS TUTORIAL POST:

1. First, always be sure you are logged into Active Rain.
   
   
2. If you forgot your password "CLICK HERE" for directions.
   
   
3. Once logged in, Click on the "MY HOME" tab located at the top right corner of your screen.
   
   
4. Now Click on (EDIT) next to the words "My Profile" on the left side of your screen.
   
   

Go to the first section which is: About Us - You can change this by clicking on [Rename Section], and then rename this portion of your page to whatever you want. For example, I changed mine from "About Us" to:

WELCOME TO YOUR NATIONAL RESOURCE FOR REAL ESTATE RELATED TECHNOLOGY & MARKETING

Here is a screen shot for reference that may help you. You might want to start with some simple text in the beginning, and then elaborate with photos, links, and HTML as time goes on. After viewing this post, hopefully you'll be feeling more comfortable with your navigational skills, and the tools that are available.

USING THE VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE TOOL BAR:

1. Write some text in the "About Us" box to begin. (You can always come back and change it anytime)
   
   
   
2. Highlight any section of the text with your mouse.
   
   
3. Use the B, I, U  to make your text BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINED, or any combination of all three.
   
   
4. To Use the strike-out tool, simply highlight the text with your mouse and click on  ABC ,  it works like this.
   
   
5. To change text "Fonts" and "Sizes", use these tools provided:

HOW TO USE THE TEXT ALIGNMENT TOOLS:

1. This tool will keep all your text left justified
   
   
2. This tool will center justify all your text
   
   
3. This tool forces all your text to be right justified
   
   
4. This tool causes your text to expand equally across your page

USING THE TAB or INDENT TOOLS:

If you want your text or images to be indented just as this text is here, you can use the   icon. Just highlight your text or image, the click on it.  Each time you click on it...

 It will TAB or indent your text evenly and consistently.

 If you want your text to go back to the left and align with previous text, just use the   tool to send it back to the left justified position.

This will allow you to create some really cool text layouts

It will also allow you to fill in some of the blank space on your page.

Being a little creative is what will set you apart from the crowd.

HOW TO ADD LINKS TO TEXT OR IMAGES:

1. Links can be created to link text and images to other pages, websites, and videos etc. in other locations.
   
   
2. Select the text or image you want to link. For this example, I will use MAKE MILLIONS as my text.
   
   
3. Highlight the text MAKE MILLIONS with your mouse, then select the    linking tool.  The following screen will appear:
   
   

The final result of your text will look like this: MAKE MILLIONS It works exactly the same with photos, graphics and images. Try it, click on the screen shot above and it will take you to the same location as the "Text Link" does.

TIPS: The reason I select to have linked pages open in a "new window" is that if your visitor/reader closes the window, they are right back at your post. The reason I always use a "Title", when you hold or hover your mouse over the "text link" or "image link", the "Title Text" will appear. This is a great tool for sending a subliminal message. Try it, just hover your mouse over the image above...

To remove links from text or graphics on any Page, simply click on   and that will break the link or links.

USING THE BULLET POINTS & NUMBERING:

1. Placing your cursor next to your text, click on the Bullet  or Numbering Icon. This will place a number or a bullet point next to your line of text.
2. To continue using Bullets & Numbers, just press "Enter" and the next Bullet or Number will be created automatically.
   

• To discontinue using Bullets and Auto Numbering,
  
• simply click on the  or the or   icon one more time, and toggle the option off!
  
  

HOW TO ADD PHOTOS, GRAPHICS, and PICTURES:

1. Place your mouse cursor where you want your "Image" to be placed.
   
2. Next, Click on the icon.
   
   
3. The window below will appear.
   
   
4. Follow these simple steps to insert/edit your images:
   
   

HOW TO MODIFY, RESIZE & ADJUST APPEARANCE OF IMAGES:

Now if you want to wrap text, and make some appearance adjustments, follow these next steps.

Follow and repeat steps 1 - 3 above. Now click on the "Appearance" tab at the top of the window.

That will take you to the screen below:

Use the options available to modify, and adjust your graphic image or photo to your desired specifications.

***NOTE: Don't worry about Class and Style at this point, they will be covered in a future post.

USING THE ADDITIONAL TOOLS PROVIDED ON THE TOOL BAR:

1.   This tool cleans up messy HTML code on your page. This is a section we will be discussing in an upcoming post regarding HTML. Not here, and not today.
   
   
2.   This tool allows you to use HTML code anywhere you see this icon. We will cover HTML and all the tips, tricks, and techniques in the "Using HTML on Active Rain" post coming soon...
   
   
3.  Now you've done all this work on your page and you want to preview how it will look, just click on this icon  to get a preview opened in a new window, and decide if you like what you see. If so, and you're all
   done editing, don't forget to click on
   
   
4. The final tool and Icon I want to share is the "Spell check" tool. DO NOT take this tool for granted. Many of us are great spellers, (not me) but when you're typing/blogging out your thoughts so quickly, it's easy to make a typo. Use the "SpelChck" ... see what happens if you don't?!
   
   

You can check out PART I of this post called: "How To Setup Your Active Rain Profile." Watch for the next "TUTORIAL" post titled: "How To Create & Upload Video on Active Rain"

Content Copyright Protected © 2008