Editing your personal profile

Handy guide to editing your Personal Profile Pages

• Introduction
• Step 1: landing on the site
• Step 2: check your 'user account'
• Step 3: check your newsletter subscriptions
• Step 4: check your 'user profile'
• Step 5: that's it and a picture of my cat

Introduction

This is a handy step by step guide to editing your personal profile page. It is for any registered user on the Transition Network website. You may have registered and confirmed via the email confirmation, or be coming from a 'one time login' link from a password reset, but it is also useful if you have clicked the 'edit my details' link in the top right hand corner of the website.

This can take less than 1 minute if you add only the vital information (e.g. new password, location), a little more if you add a bit more (photo, transition themes of interest, initiative, trainings attended), and as long as an old dog's walk if you want to write your autobiography in the 'Biography' box.

Don't forget that that the 'SAVE' button is at the bottom of all the forms mentioned. Use it! We do have an 'auto-save' module working to automatically save information entered on the site, but you still need to save when you've entered your information.

Step 1: Landing on the site (or you may go straight to step 2)

As said above, you may arrive from the password reminder link, or new account email. Wherever, the first step is really straightforward. Just do what it says. This is a screengrab from a password reminder link. There is a big green 'log in' button. Click it:

(landing page from email login link)

From there you will be taken to re-set your password, which is on your 'user account' page. Again, if you've clicked on a confirmation link in an email, or the 'Edit my details' link in the top right corner, you'll miss step 1 and you'll be at step 2...

Step 2: check your 'user account'

This is about managing your 'account' on this site, with private details - like how you want to receive emails etc.

It is not about your public profile; that is on the 'User profile' tab (step 4).

Note that on the screengrab, there are a variety of tabs along the top. Of particular interest are: 'Transition Near me' and My content' which show you what's going on around you and what content you can edit.

We are looking at the bottom three tabs: Account, Newsletter, Profile...

• Your account information: Username and Email and password are the only things you have to add
  
  • Username: Please use your real name, especially if you are a point of contact. As well as helping others identify you, the system uses usernames to do clever stuff. Please? Pretty please. Real names...
    
  • Email: you can edit this here
    
  • Password: you can edit these

Then some nice stuff:

• Picture: add one if you like
• Email settings: you can choose if you have a 'html' or 'text' email (if you mind)
• Contact settings: for your contact form: you need to check that this is set to public if you want people to contact you
• Messaging and notifications settings: details about how you receive email alerts letting you know of new stuff on the site
• Your Locale settings: the time zone you're in (for the very particular)

Don't forget to click Save at the bottom...

Step 3: check your newsletter subscriptions

Pretty self-explanatory really. At the time of writing you can (un) subscribe to the main Transition Network monthly newsletter, and the Transition Network Diversity newsletter.

More will probably follow...

Step 4: check your 'User Profile'

This is your public profile page editing. This is about managing what other people can see on your public profile, which appears in the people directory.

You can control what is public and what isn't. You don't have to add anything.

The more you add here, the better your experience with the site will be, so please be generous.

You can add/edit:

• Tags: handy words you can use to describe your interests that aren't captured by the 'themes' or other options (we'll be using these in the future)
• First name, middle name, last name
• Make my user profile private: a little box. You can choose privacy if you want, but we'd prefer you to share some details. Up to you.
• Short Biography: please add some useful information here - it will help people know you better and your communications with them better
• Your location: you have to fill this in in order to appear on the map (which is very handy). As much information as possible please, particularly your postal code. All details are kept private, your location is slightly blurred in the maps for privacy (although if you are in a block of flats it may look very accurate)

.. and a few more...

• Involvement with the Transition Network:
  • Roles I perform: Click on 'facilitator' or 'speaker' to appear in the 'facilitator' and 'speaker' directories
  • Initiatives I'm involved in
  • Transition Network trainings attended
  • Other Transition Training attended
• More information and Internet presence: some extra information for those with blogs/websites etc.

Don't forget to click Save at the bottom...

Step 5: that's it and picture of my cat

Yup, that's it - you're done. Stand up, have a stretch, wave your arms around, touch your toes, etc. And here's a picture of my trusty assistant, Elvis the cat, hard at work...

About the author

Ed is the Web Manager for Transition Network. This means that he works on all the web stuff from the day to day support, to tactical activities to strategic and special projects work for Transition Network about linking up all the Transition Initiative websites without them having to come to the main site all the time for updates and news.

He lives in Bristol, likes digging and climbing, growing vegetables and reading, bicycles and books, swimming, camping and generally being outdoors.