Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Video of the Day [3.19.2009]

Jacques Brel, a French singer of Flemish descent was somebody I discovered by accident. This was, by far, one of the happiest accidents I've seen. Brel's work has been translated and adapted into English cover songs by many artists, including David Bowie. This song, Amsterdam, is one of those songs. This live performance of Amsterdam is one of the songs that he sings with such passion, it is truly moving. I'll post more of his songs as time goes on, but I thought I'd start with this.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Myspace Help Tips!

*Some basic Myspace tips*

To add a friend-
Simply go to their page, and underneath their photo [or the space where the photo would go], there is a box labeled "Contacting ___" with about eight different links, one of them being "Add to Friends". Just click that link, and it will bring you to a new screen saying "Are you sure you want to add ____ as a friend?" Simply click "Yes" and it will send a friend request to that user.

To accept friend requests-
Go to your Myspace homepage [click "Home" in the navigation bar] and it should have an alert under your Mail Center that says "NEW FRIEND REQUESTS!" Click that link and it will lead you to your friend request inbox. After that, all you have to do is click "Accept" [or Reject, or you can visit his/her page first if it's unfamiliar to you]. If the alert doesn't show, you can always just click the link that says "Friend Requests" in your mail center.

To post a bulletin-
Just click the link in your mail that says "Post Bulletin", type your bulletin, then click "Post". It will bring you a preview of your bulletin that you can proofread. If no changes need to be made, click "Post Bulletin", if you need to make an edit, click "Edit" and it will bring you back to the bulletin entry page.

To send a message-
When sending a message, you have two options. You can visit the person's page and under his/her "Contacting ____", you can click "Send Message". This will bring you to something similar to the bulletin entry page, only this one will have somebody else's picture and Myspace URL where yours was. You simply type your message and hit send. However, when sending a message, it doesn't bring you back to an edit screen, so make sure you proof before you send!
The other way to send a message is to go to your homepage, click the "Inbox" link in your Mail Center, and on the left hand side, there's a menu. On top of that menu is a yellow button that says "Compose". In the "To" field, just start typing your friend's name and a drop-down menu of your friends will fall to pick one. Then you just write the message just like the other method.

To make your profile private-
When you make your profile private, all that is seen when a person who isn't your friend views your page is your picture and the "Contacting ___" box. To make it private, go to your homepage, and the where your photo is [or where it should be if you don't have one], and click "Account Settings". Click "Privacy" and where it says "Profile Viewable By", select "My Friends Only".

To post a photo from sites like Photobucket, TinyPic, ImageShack, they give you a code to use. It's the HTML code, or the one in angled brackets [the one's above the comma and period]. You follow the same instructions as posting a glitter graphic.

To post the animated and glitter-style graphics, use Google or another search engine and search for "Myspace Graphics". Some sites, I'm sure, are different, but typically the images all have the codes pre-typed under the image in a text box and all you have to do is copy the code then paste it into the comment entry field. Sometimes, it will bring you to a page of thumbnails [littler versions of the graphic], and you will have to click your choice to see the full-size graphic and code.

To leave a comment, just go to the person's page you want to leave it on, and scroll down underneath where it says "View all ___'s friends", and you'll see any comments already received by that person and a link saying "Add Comment" [hit the "End" key on your keyboard and usually this link is at the very end of the page, on the right].

Once you click that link, it will bring you to a rather plain page with an entry field next to the person's photo. Just paste whatever code the graphic's website gives you and hit "Send Comment". It will allow you to preview your comment before sending, just like a bulletin. You can either edit the comment or post it.

To add a song to your profile-
To add a song to your profile, click the link that says "Music" in the navigation bar at the top of the page. It will bring you to a page with a search box toward the right. Type in the name of the artist or group that you want and click "Search". It will bring you to the results and click on what matches who you were looking for. It will bring you to their Myspace page [which sometimes takes a while to load, so patience comes in handy!], which USUALLY has the music player on the right hand side.
The music player has a play, pause, stop button on the top, with the name of the song next to it. Below the buttons is a list of sonts and under each soing title are the words "Download", "Rate", "Comment", "Lyrics", and "Add". A lot of the time, none of them will be clickable but "Add", but that's okay because "Add" is all you need. :)

To add the song, just click add. It will bring you to a page asking you if you're sure you want the song. Click "Add Song to Profile", and after that it will bring you to a page saying the song has been added to your profile. :)

To make changes to your profile-
These next few sections will be about adding photos, videos, and information to your profile. I'm not sure how to make layouts [adding backgrounds, cursors, "Online Now" signs, etc], but you can easily search for "Myspace Layout Generators", and they help a lot.

To get to the page-editing area of your site, go to your Myspace home page and by your photo, click the link that says "Edit Profile". It will bring up a page with nine entry fields.

To put a video on your page-

YouTube Videos-

Go to the video that you would like to add, and next to the player, there are two codes-URL and Embed. Copy the embed code and paste it into any section on your page, except the headline section.

Myspace Videos-
I don't usually use Myspace video, but the concept is the same, only the URL is below the video this time.

When posting a video, it's a good idea to put the video where it makes sense. For instance, you might put a video of Ross into the "Heroes" section, or the "Who I'd like to Meet" section. A video of BB or DWTS might go under "Television". See what I mean?

To add a photo to your page-
If you find a picture you like, save it to your computer [Right click, then click Save Picture As], then upload it to a site like Photobucket.com or Tinypic.com. With Photobucket, you need to create an account, but it's easy to do, and I like that site.

Photobucket will generate an email and IM code, a Direct Link code, an HTML code, and an Image code. You are going to want to use the HTML code for this. Copy the code and place it where you want. Again, you should put the photo in the corresponding section.

TinyPic will generate an HTML code only. You just copy and paste that as well.

You shouldn't ever just get the direct link to the photo you want to use, because that steals bandwith from the site and that typically makes the site owner unhappy because it costs them more money. Some also have a way of making the photo change if somebody uses the direct link to the image. I had that happen to me once and instead of the cute image I wanted, it was an image with something nasty written on it, so don't do that!

There is also another way to post a picture. This one will use the "Direct Link" option on Photobucket. Use the code- (img src= PASTE THE HTML LINK OF THE PHOTO HERE), but use the brackets located above the period and comma keys.

To just add text to the entry fields-
Just type away!
*All codes used here will require the brackets above the period and comma, not parentheses*.


-If you want your text to be
centered
, use (center)Type your text here. (/center)

-If you want your text to be bolded, use (b)Text here. (/b)

-If you want Italicized text, use (i)Text here.(/i)

-If you want a colored font for a comment, a bulletin, or a message, use this code.

(font color=red)Text here.(/font)
You can use these colors-
Red, orange, yellow, blue, teal, aqua, pink, black, and purple. You can also use the HTML number and letter code, but I think that the color name is a LOT easier. :) However, if you want to use a lot more color, an HTML color page can be found at this link- Click here for html-color-codes.com.

The way to use the HTML color codes is just the same. With this site, each color is represented by a square, with the color code in the square. Just copy the color code you want and paste it where you would normally put the name of the color.

If you want a bigger or smaller font, use this code-

(font size=1)Text.(/font)

You can use any number from one to seven. One's the smallest and seven is the largest.

To post a link-
Copy the link to your clipboard, then paste the link in this code-
(a href=PASTE LINK HERE)Type what you want your link to show up as, such as "Click here" or "Link"(/a). A link will show up like this-
Click here for Ross "The Intern" Mathew's daily blog!

Be sure to copy the ENTIRE link, including the http:// part. :)

I hope these instructions show up properly and you can all understand them!
Feel free to ask questions, of course, and I'll answer what I can!