profile picture....

damnit, tell me how to manipulate pics and doo-dads. step by step instructions for computer retarded idiot-savant. please help me. must show my sexy body in order to bag hot chicks and become the envy of this board. really, i am charming!

First you need to get a pic. If you have a digital camera or webcam, hook it up to your computer like the manual says and transfer the files. It should have good directions on how to do this. If you are using a scanner it will probably scan them to a predetermined folder which you can identify by going to options and seeing where it says. If you want to get something off the web, right-click on it (ctrl-click on a Mac) and choose Save Picture As, then choose where you want to save it to. Wherever you get the pic, save it somewhere easy to find like the desktop or hard drive.

Next you need to get it to the right size to post on your profile. Maybe if it's not exact it will stretch to match, but I don't know, so better to have it exactly 235 x 175 pixels. You can do the basic image alteration in Paint, which I'm sure you have on your computer. Select the part you want to appear on your profile with the dotted rectangle icon. Try to choose a section with about a 4:3 ratio so it keeps the right aspect. Copy it, then grab the drawing space (the non-grey area that has the picture in it) by its lower-right corner and drag it until it is very small. Now hit paste, and your selection should appear with no white around the edges and be the only thing on the screen.

Go into the Image bar at the top and choose Attributes, which will tell you how big it is. Now choose Stretch/Skew, which is also in Image, and adjust the stretch percentages until the pics dimensions are roughly what's needed, say 240 x 180. You can either do this by trial and error or open up the calculator accessory and figure out the percentages you'll need. Now when it's about the right size go back into attributes and enter 235 in the Width box and 175 in the Height box and then click OK. This cuts off any extra space and makes it exactly the right size.

Now that you have your picture save it to the desktop or hard drive with a name like profilepic. If you want to alter it any, you can do it in any drawing program as long as you make sure not to change the size. When you're ready to post it, go to Preferences and click Browse in Upload Photo. Then go to wherever you saved it and choose it and click OK. Then just click submit at the bottom of the page and you're set.

check your compression settings on the camera as well, not the right setting and you get fun house mirror results in the posting of your pic.