Customizing your Page

[nuanc]

It IS possible to do away with the PCQ header on your page.

I'm still scrambling to figure out how.

From your page, go to:
Edit page appearance

And then click on:
Advanced

You'll then, paste in a snippet of CSS instruction.

To have no logo paste this:

#xg_masthead img {
display: none;
}

However that doesn't work, I don't think, if you want to have your own logo header because it's giving the instruction for no header.

I just tried some instructions given in the Ning forum and it screwed up my page...so let me do some research and I'll get back to you as soon as I know what does work.

Everything's looking good out there!

**********
UPDATE
**********

I've figured out a way to paste in a new header. There's still the issue of the page title (Let's talk!...) which is coming out in the wrong spot. I'll get to that...later.

For now, if you want to get rid of the PCQ header, do the steps I outlined above.

If you want to put in your own header picture:

- Upload your image to the site in My Photos
- Click on it to bring it up in a separate window so that it's full size.
- Right click (sorry Mac users...whatever the equivalent is in MacWorld) click on "Properties."
- Copy the url
- Copy this snippet of CSS to NotePad or equivalent on your computer:

#xg_masthead img {
display: none;
}

#xg_masthead {
background-image: url('');
height: px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: center top;
}


- Paste the url you copied between the parentheses and quotation marks (those are single quotations). Add the height of the image in pixels at the end of the url line.
- Paste the snippet below into your Advanced CSS text box (see above for how to get there).
- Hit Save and hold your breath till you see what happened.


Let me know!

[Suze]

we can wait.
I'm speaking for all of us...?

But I do have another question about making my own page. I can't find a link anywhere that takes me back to it if i want to make additional changes. The way I finally got back to it was to go to the "history" setting on my computer and find it. I'm probably just missing the obvious but please inform me. thanks! Can you tell I'm having so much fun with this site!?

[nuanc]

I did the same thing, Suzeque. I had to use my Back button because the Edit Your Page's Appearance link was GONE.

Let's be Careful Out There, Kids.

[Suze]

okay. i'm going to try it when i have 8 hours of uninterrupted free time on my hands. hah. wowzers....

[Erica]

OK I've just been having a play around and uploaded a header picture, followed your 2nd CSS instructions, but your header was still there and I could just see the edges of mine behind it -

then I added the 1st piece of CSS to the second and Bingo - it worked, deleted your header and shows mine

Suze - if you click on the My Page tab, you'll see "edit page appearance" just under it
Oh Nancy - I just re read and you said your "edit page" writing had gone - check the font colour if you've altered your colour scheme, the writing may just be blending in with the background

BTW remember to copy the final piece of CSS for pasting because each time you click on a different colour scheme it appears to delete everything you had previously in the advanced setting

[Suze]

you are a WHIZ and I bow to your expertise!!! wonderful header, too--so spirited!!!!

[Erica]

no, not a whiz, just like to mess about and see what happens!
have just redone the header,
also if you want your background to show right the way through as I've just now done on mine
add this to the CSS

#xg_body {
background-color:transparent;
}

don't ask me where that came from - I managed to do it on my other ning network but can't for the life of me remember how LOL

[Erica]

I thought I'd add another thing I've just learned:

I wanted to try the photo upload from Flickr, I have a lot of pics on flickr so thought the connection with Ning would be a very handy option, but will add a warning for new players.

- I told it to load pictures from my textile set on flickr, thinking it would give me some sort of choice for the ones I wanted to use here, but no - it very promptly started downloading the WHOLE set (about 140 photos!) to this site!
I had to close the window very quickly to stop it!

My personal feeling is that this needs to be used with caution if you don't want to flood the pool here.
It also picks up all the flickr tags you've used, which may not suit this site (some tags may refer to different flickr groups)

So if you saw some photos then wasn't sure if you imagined them - don't worry, you weren't hallucinating, it was me quickly deleting.

[nuanc]

Yes, Erica, I had the same issue...early on. You'll see the photo page has about 200 photos of mine. I thought they were all uploading to MY photos, not the group photo page. Personally, I don't mind, but a cautionary note about uploading whole sets is probably in order. We're all learning and so far, no major disasters. Thanks for your help!

[JustBon]

Hi,

This is really useful info...but I'm having problems adding my own banner to my header. Is there a particular size image that you can add? My banner is 760 x 100, but at the moment appears squashed at the top of my profile.

What am I doing wrong? Help! lol (I see there is an instruction to add the height of the image at the end of the URL line - does it come directly after the semi-colon and just a number?

Thanks!

[nuanc]

Hi JustBon,

This is a bit of a trial and error thing...I wish I had a perfect answer for everyone but with dimensions of headers being different, it's hard for me to know what's going to happen.

Try this:

#xg_masthead img {
display: none;
}

#xg_masthead {
background-position: top center;
text-align: ;<---take this out or use it to align the Being Practically Creative text where you want it--->
color: ;<---changes the colour of the text cited above; can be blank--->
font-weight: bold;
white-space: pre;
background-image: url(http://<----your image url here---> );
height: 150px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

This works with a 81 x 445 header. I know yours is bigger... but I think it should work. You can play around with the height to see what works best. The number of pixels of height goes after the colon...be sure to put in px after the number...and then the semi-colon to end the instruction.

Let me know if you're still having problems!

Good luck!