How to Customize your MySpace Layouts

Creating a profile at MySpace, the number one online social networking site, is a great way to keep in touch with friends, reconnect with old ones and meet new people that share your interests. There are different sections on your profile that allow you to list your favorite books, movies, television shows and more, and the MySpace search features lets users search for others by age, gender, location, sexual orientation, even physical appearance. When you sign up for an account--it's free, by the way--you will be given a default page that is already layed out in the standard MySpace design, like this one. The default MySpace layout consists of a white body set against gray, blue "Interests" boxes, orange "About Me" borders and an orange "Comments" section. And yet when you visit other MySpace pages you are hit with animated images and fancy colors that seem to explode right off the page and make you wonder, How did they DO that? Here's a basic beginners guide to doing it yourself.

A background is the base of the MySpace page. On default layouts, the background is colored grey and the main body of the page is white. A layout, on the other hand, is an overall theme that uses HTML coding to change the entire look and feel of your MySpace page. If you are experienced in HTML coding, you can alter your profile as you see fit. For the majority of users who are not experienced with HTML, here are some helpful codes that will assist you in making minor changes to your MySpace page.

**IMPORTANT NOTE** Changes to your MySpace layout are made by logging into your account, clicking "Edit Profile", then copying and pasting certain HTML codes into the section that says "About Me". Make sure to paste the codes at the bottom of any text you have already typed in that section describing yourself.

To change the background color, paste the following code into your profile:

< style >body{background-color: FF0000;}< /style >

• Replace the FF000 with the color code of your choice. A list of color codes can be found here.

To change the background image, paste the following code into your profile:

< style >body{background-image:url("URL");}< /style >

• Remove the spaces within the style tag. Replace the URL with the http:// location that points to where your image is stored online.

To change the body of the page (this is also called the main table, where all the information is stored) that is originally set at white, paste the following code into your profile:

< style >table table table td {background-color: 000000;}< /style >

• Remove the spaces within the style tags. Replace the 000000 with the color code you'd like to use. A list of color codes can be found here.

To change the font style or color, paste the following code into your profile:

< style >.text {font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: FFFFFF;}< /style >

• Remove the spaces within the style tags. Replace arial with the font you would like to use (Times New Roman, Courier New, Verdana, and other fonts can be previewed in the image below). Sans-serif (which is a font without feet) can either stay as it is or be changed to serif (font with feet). Replace the FFFFFF with the color code of your choice. A list of color codes can be found here.

The above will alter the color of the text on the page, but to change the color of any links that go to your blog entries or outside sources will have to be made by pasting this code into your profile:

< style >a:link { color: CCFFFF; text-decoration:none;}< /style >

• Remove the spaces within the style tags. Replace CCFFFF with the color of your choice using this chart of color codes. The text-decoration code determines whether or not there is a line underneath the link. To make it so there is a line, change none to underlined.

Although you can use the above codes (and many more) to design fun and unique MySpace pages, why bother when other people have already done the work for you? There are a number of sites that offer pre-made MySpace layouts. Unfortunately, some of those sites use color schemes that are so brightly mismatched they may cause permanent damage to your eyes, while others come with ten billion pop-ups. The layout sites I have linked to below are handpicked by me, and come with the promise of being easy on the eyes. Simply select a layout from one of the below links, copy the HTML code, and paste it into your "About Me" section underneath any text you have previously typed in.