Working With Your Profile Page - 'My Bag'

When you join a network on Ning, you create your own profile page on that network. One of the easiest ways to get started on is to make your profile page your own - add a profile photo, change the appearance of your page, and add some content. Let people know what you're about! Check out the guides below for a few things you can do to customize your profile page:

Change your page's theme

Your profile page on a network automatically takes the network's theme and appearance settings. By default, you can change the theme and appearance of their profile page.

There are a number of appearance themes available to you, ranging from simple color schemes to advanced themes. You can apply any of these standard default themes to your profile page.

To change your profile page's theme, go to your profile page and click the "Change Theme" link underneath your profile photo. This is a setting that Network Creators can turn off, so if you don't see the "Change Theme" link under your profile photo on your page, it's likely the Network Creator has turned off this ability.

In the top portion of the page, you can browse through the themes currently available and test them out on your profile page.

You can further customize your page's appearance by changing the font and colors of the theme you've chosen. Select the theme you'd like to customize and scroll to the "Theme Settings" section of the page.

Here you can change the font style, color, and size, change the colors of your theme, and upload your own header background. The header background image you upload here will appear in the top section of your page, above the tabs, and will stretch to fit the area. It will replace the network's header background, but not the network name (or logo, if one has been uploaded).

Add your own CSS

To further customize your page's appearance, you can add your own CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets.  With CSS, you can make changes to your page's appearance that aren't available in the built-in theme settings page.

If you're interested in learning more about CSS to customize your page, we recommend checking out W3C's CSS section and downloading Firebug to experiment.

Upload a profile photo

When joining a network on Ning, you have the option to upload a profile photo as you join the network. Uploading a profile photo is a great way to let other members know a little bit about you. It's always nice to put a face to a name, but it doesn't have to be a photo of you - it can be an image that represents you, like a photo of your favorite vacation spot or your pet. Any image you upload will represent you on the network, so be creative!

To change your profile photo, click on the "Settings" link in the right column of the page. Next to the "Profile Photo" field, click the "Upload a photo" button. Click the "Browse" button to find your image on your computer.

Change the layout of your profile page

You can rearrange the layout of your profile page and place the features however you'd like. Using this option, you can highlight your favorite feature on your profile page - maybe you've uploaded a few awesome new photos or wrote a blog post you want people to see when they first land on your page. Just move that feature to the top of the middle column and visitors will see it right away!

To move content around on your profile page, head to your profile and locate the feature you'd like to move. Put your mouse in the title bar of that box. If it can be moved, a small crosshair icon will appear to the left of it.

Click and drag the box to its new location.

Drop the box where you'd like it to be, and keep going until you have the perfect layout!

Some elements on your profile page - like your profile photo, basic information, and the My Friends box - can't be moved, but other than that have fun!

Use your text box

One of the easiest things you can do to make your profile page your own is add content to your text box. Text boxes are one of the most flexible features on your network, and you can add anything you'd like to the text box on your profile page - including text, images, widgets, and links. For more ideas on using your text box, check out this article.