[Susan]

When you register as a member, you'll get an account and you'll have a Public Profile which tells other members a little (or a lot) about you. You can choose to make certain pieces of information about you public by editing your Profile. Some things are not editable, like the post count, join date and any public group memberships. This is also a way to send email or a private message to a member, or add someone to your buddy list.

You can see anyone's profile by clicking on their name in a post or thread. Here's what a pretty basic profile looks like:

[Susan]

So...how do you edit this profile, you say? Well, there's a couple of ways to get there. Look up at the top of this page. See the blue bar up there? All the way on the left is My Account. It's a deceptively tiny little link. You'll find that there's alot of power in that one little link.

Also, since it's kind of a neat feature, I'll point out another way to get there: In the first picture below, you'll see the Quick Links menu that's always available on the blue navigation bar, no matter where you go in the forums. Click on My Profile - Gotcha! That's your public profile - what other people see. Good idea to take a look at it from time to time. Now, instead, click on My Account and you'll get a screen that looks much like the 2nd screenshot below.

So, you've seen the thread subscriptions -- this is something you can choose when you've replied to a post, or even if you're just interested in following along. It's a good idea to periodically delete those that you're not following anymore.

From there, it gets much more interesting....

[Susan]

Onward. We'll start at the top of the lefthand navigation bar and work our way down...

Edit Signature - Signatures are a way of showing a bit of your personality. Sometimes it's a quote or a favorite saying. Sometimes it's a photo of your pet, or a statement such as "Support Breast Cancer Research". Whatever it is, you can add it here. With some exceptions. Nothing naughty, no profanity goes without saying, and (due to the possibility of spamming by interlopers with nefarious intentions) no links. Although you can say that your pictures are hosted at Flickr and your username is Charlie Brown. That would be ok.

Enough of the rules. Here's the how to's:

1. Think it up.
2. Type it in.
3. Click "Preview Signature" to see what it will look like, or
4. Click "Save Signature" to finish.

Now you're in the cool club.

[Susan]

Pretty self-explanatory. If you want a new password, or you need to change your email address, here's the place to do it. Easy peasy.

[Susan]

This is the biggie. It's going to take me at least 2, maybe 3 screens to show you all there is here.

First off, if you missed the edit email and password, here's another shot at it.

Here's where you can hide your birthday. If you do so, don't expect anyone to be singing you a song, though.

If you'd like to add a URL for your own personal website or photo hosting account, you may do so here. Please, no self-promotion, advertising, or links to websites of an adult or otherwise questionable nature. Doing so will incur wrath and possibly a permanent ban.

That's all in the first screen below. On the the next:

If, and only if, you would like people to be able to contact you through Instant Messaging, such as AOL, or Skype stick your info in here.

Then on to the fun stuff!

• If you're redoing a kitchen, office, wardrobe or whatever really, you can proclaim it to the world here. This will show up on the members list and is searchable, so be sure to fill it out so that others of like doors can find you!
• Location is entirely optional - it will also show on the members list, so if you're touchy about letting people know where you are, don't add it here.
• Local IKEA - even if it's not really local, we want to know where you shop. Helpful for finding out store-specific details, like what time the store is least busy, etc.
• Interests -- again, entirely up to you. I think we'd all like to know if your hobby is Latvian Folk Dancing, but you don't have to tell us if you don't want to.
• AND, your favorite IKEA food. Are you a meatballs kind of person?

Now, click "Save Changes" and you're done. Not too bad, huh?

[Susan]

Whew! Ok...a few more and then I promise we'll take a break. Editing options is where you give all your preferences for things like time settings and more.

First up - Login and Privacy - Don't know why it's called that. It's a place where you can allow other members to download a vCard or not. If you have one. Or not.

Messaging & Notification -

• Receive email from us or not? Good idea since we'll send notifications when we change policies or if the site is going to be down for any extended length of time. You would want to know, right?
• Plus, you get to decide if you want to get email (as opposed to private messages) from other members. You will not see the other person's email address and they will not see yours. It's magical.
• Default thread subscription gives you the option to select how you want to be notified most of the time about replies to threads you've started or posted on. The default is that you are automagically subscribed when you post (you can even subscribe to threads you haven't posted on!). I like to get instant email notifications also, because I'm a wee bit obsessive.

[Susan]

Private Messaging - Yay or nay? This lets other people from the forums send you messages which you receive, read, respond - all here on the forums -- actually, right here in your Account. We'll get to that. There are a few different options here, but I won't elaborate. You can read. I like the Private Message Notification Pop-up. Way cool.

Thread Display Options:

Visible post elements -- this is where you can turn on and off things like your signature, avatar or other pictures in your profile without deleting them. If you suddenly become shy or something.

Thread display mode - Most of us are accustomed to a "Linear, Oldest First", but you may be more comfortable with other views. Check them out, then click one. This will be your "thread display mode". Sounds kind of geekish, huh?

Number of posts to show per page - you can override our default which is 5.

Default Thread Age Cut-Off - If you have kept up with threads since the beginning of time (the year 0 A.I. - After IKEAFANS), you may want to limit the threads to those in the last month or two. Our default is back to 0 A.I.

That's all folks!

[Susan]

I told you this was a long one.

Date & Time Options - This part of the page holds one very important thing that will surely drive you bonkers if you fail to customize it.

• The all-important Time Zone - This is set, by default, to GMT - in other words, to the time in London, Lisbon, or Casablanca. If you don't live in those parts, you'll want to select your own Time Zone. Here on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, we're -5 GMT.
• You'll also pick the day of the week that is the customary start of the week in your country. This will affect your views on the calendars.

[Susan]

This is that cute little picture you can have underneath your name in your posts and on your profile. You can choose to categorically deny avatars, pick one from our lists (drop down the menu for additional categories of avatars to choose from), or you can upload your own avatar. Two methods for that - link to it on another website (usually discouraged - it's akin to stealing bandwidth. Save this for if you have your own website and you give yourself permission) or to upload it from your computer. This will be most of you. You'll have to choose something that's 80x80 or less.

[Susan]

Same idea as the avatar, but maybe a picture of you. Or your dog. Or your kitchen. Whatever.