Managing Your Profile
As a member of Footnote, there are millions of historical documents and files that you may check out, as well as numerous activities you can do as a means of interacting with fellow members and making the most of your Footnote experience. Your account, as mentioned before, should conform to your preferences, and Footnote has given the convenience of making such changes with a few easy clicks.
Since you have already been familiarized with how to manage your account settings and make any personalizing touches or changes as necessary, you now need to learn more about your profile on Footnote. The profile page is unique for each member of Footnote, and these are the pages that a lot of members spend most of their time on, as it serves like a virtual planner of recent activities, events, notes, and more.
To be able to manage your profile, you must be logged in to Footnote. At the home page, you will find a right most column which has the name "Profile Page." Click on the "Go to profile page" link and you will be redirected. Your browser is now on the Profile View page. Following is a brief dissection of what you will find on the Profile View Page.
On the left hand side, you find your photo, which you can change later on. Below your photo, is a balloon labeled as "About Me." In this, you can find links that allow you to provide information about yourself as you would like it to appear to the public or other members of the Footnote community.
You can already make modifications or additions to your "About Me" portion of the profile. If you click on the "Add something about you" link, you will be directed to a form which you need to fill up. These are your public information, and it is optional for you to provide data on the fields given. You have the prerogative to set what info about yourself you can display to other Footnote members who want to view your profile.
You have the choice of putting your first name, last name, as well as your state and country. On the text box labeled "About You," you can say something about yourself in about 250 words maximum. It can be about your hobbies, historic interests, your work, and others. Providing something fun to know about you helps other members relate to you more. After you have filled in the text boxes, be sure to click on the "Save Changes" button to implement them.
Next, here are some words on your profile photo. For now, if you haven't changed anything, your face appears as a box with a smile on it. Click on the "Change photo" link below it so you can upload a file of your choice. It can be in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format. Alternately, the photo is also called the avatar. Your photo will be seen by other members when they check out your member profile page, or when they read on comments, story pages, and spotlights that you have made. Additional data on these sections are mentioned below.
At the right hand side of your screen, is a box labeled with "Contribution Score," denoting the type of activity you have completed so far upon registering to Footnote. You will find a number indicating how many contributions you have made to Footnote. Your profile completion status by now would most likely be at 40%, if you had not made any changes to your profile yet. Adding a photo, avatar, or making an update will add to that completion rate.
Other sections of your Profile Page give you data on your Uploads, Annotations, Spotlights, Story Pages, Connections, and Comments, much like a status report of everything you have done on Footnote by far. If you are a new member, you basically have no contributions, comments, story pages, annotations, and the like. Whenever you make any recent changes, it will appear here on your Profile Page.
What changes or additions can you make on your profile? Here are some descriptions of each section, but detailed info will be described in separate articles in this guide.
Uploads - These are photos, documents, and other files that you have created and contributed to belong to the Footnote database. By uploading a file, you are allowing members of the Footnote community to view it. How to Upload
Annotations - These are notes that members can place on photos or other files of fellow Footnote members. They are also used to make clarifications to some illegible portions of a photo or file. How to Annotate
Spotlights - You select spotlights on certain files or photos that you are interested in, and are willing to open up as a topic for discussion for further focus or emphasis. How to Spotlight an Image
Story Pages - These may be like blogs that you create for yourself, and is a means of sharing what you know to other people on Footnote. You can make a story page with photos, links, and other relevant data on a historical event, and Footnote users are free to comment, discuss, and even bookmark your story page as they wish. How to Write Story Pages
Connections - You can make a connection from a photo of a fellow Footnote member, to another photo that you upload yourself. This is usually done for purposes of increasing the relevance of pages, and by providing additional info and support to a story page or image uploaded by a member. How to Make Connections
Comments - You can make comments or leave messages to other Footnote members on their story pages. Your personal profile keeps track of which story pages, images, or files, you have made comments on. How to Comment
Just remember that whatever you do with your profile generally depends on you. This is one of the beauties offered by Footnote, as you get to modify these settings as you wish. This makes it easier for you to maximize your Footnote experience, and gain the optimum benefits of your membership.