brit_columbia

I know how you feel - I pretty much had to teach myself how to do LJ stuff. I'm still learning. Pictures aren't too hard - do you still need help?

Okay - I think I saw you were a member of fakeicons - it's a lot harder to make your own icons (imho) than to find some that you like on an icon community, so did you see any there that you liked? They are already pre-sized and formatted for LJ, so it would make it a bit easier.

If you see one that you like, go ahead and upload it to your computer by right-clicking on your mouse. That should bring up a pop-up menu with different options. One of the options should be 'Save picture as'. Click on that, the computer will ask you where you want to save it. It's a good idea to save it to where you can find it again, so try either 'desktop' or a file that you know you will be able to find again - you'll need to give the location of the pic to upload it to your lj account.

Let me know if you're able to find an icon that you like and have it saved to your desktop - also jot down the lj name of the person who made it so that you can credit them for the pic. Icon-lifting without credit is a no-no on lj. I'll continue with instructions once you have a pic saved.

Oh - almost forgot - it's also nice to leave a comment in the post that contains the icon that you're taking - just to thank the person who made it.

When you have a bit of time, could you please continue with those instructions? My goal is to get a picture up by the end of the month, but sooner would also make me very happy. I have a lot of icons saved in my downloads file. Thanks!

Yeah - I will. Thursday ok? I'm kind of swamped at work until then - sowwy!

Please don't apologize. I know you're a busy person. I sort of remember something from one of your journal posts about a 60 plus hour workweek you did recently, and I know you're a mom, and you also seem to serve as a kind of facilitator / administrator for Fake RPG, AND there's your involvement in your Yahoo group too! Believe me, I'm genuinely grateful for any time you can spare for me. As I said, my goal is to get a picture up by the end of the month, so if Thursday turns out not to be possible for you for any reason, then please go ahead and suggest a later date that works for you. (My main fear here is that you'll give me a detailed set of directions and I will incur your contempt by not understanding them at all. It's like an approaching test for me, and I want to get it over with!) Seriously, I can and will wait until you have time to help me.

Don't worry - I just have another really busy workweek, but I do have Thursday afternoon off, so that should be ok (I just need the time to delete/reupload a pic to make sure I can explain it to you correctly so that it's not too confusing).

Go to your ‘user info’ page. On the top toolbar, put your mouse over ‘manage’ on the dark blue toolbar. You should see a lighter blue toolbar underneath, one of the selections should be ‘userpics’. Click on that. You should see an area that says ‘Upload a new userpic’ with a blue box with an option marked ‘From File’, with a ‘browse’ button on the right. Click on the browse button, and direct your computer to where you’ve saved the icon you want to upload. If you’re already in a folder, there should be some buttons to help you navigate around your hard drive, like a folder with an ‘up’ arrow on it, to get to the folder that contains the smaller folder you’re already in. Look around in different folders/on your desktop/wherever you saved the picture until you find your icon that you’ve previously saved. When you find it, double-click on it, and LJ will enter in the ‘address’ of that icon that you’ve selected into the ‘From File’ line. There’s a couple of other boxes to fill in, ‘Keyword’ and ‘Comment’. “Keyword’ is whatever you choose to call the icon and you’ll use it whenever you’re selecting what icon to use in entries you make. “Comment’ is where you put stuff like who made the icon, where you got the icon, etc. or you could also put it in the 'Keyword' line as well. Always want to give credit – its considered a no-no on LJ to lift icons without saying where you got them unless you made it yourself. At that point, decide if you want the icon to come up as your default (ie the one you’re going to use the most), and fix the ‘default’ button appropriately. Then, hit the ‘Proceed’ button. You should then see your new icon! You have space for 6 icons on a free account, so have fun! Let me know if you have any trouble and I’ll try to help.

Look! It worked! I'm SO thrilled. Not being able to post a picture has been a major source of frustration for me. I feel like I've taken a giant step forward today. This has had a huge effect on my morale. Thank you, thank you! I appreciate you spending your personal time to show me how to post pictures. Someday, I hope there will be something I can do for you.

Oh good - I'm just glad you were able to get them uploaded!