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Stephanie's Awesome Xanga Help!

Adding a Chatterbox Adding a counter Adding a cursor Adding a custom scrollbar Creating a background Creating a marquee Contact Me Finding an image's URL

Allow me to introduce to my own private tutorial to help you with setting up your xanga layout. I have been asked a lot of questions such as, "Where do I find a layout for xanga like yours?" or the ever popular, "How do you make a xanga layout?"...Okay, the answer to the first one is "here" and to the second one...ehh...
So... I'm here to walk you through the steps of creating the layout for your xanga that you've always wanted...Keep reading. =D

**NOTE: Some of these images have been used on other sites from other sites, but are not directly linked...if you still think that using these images on this site is unfair...sue me =D.

---------------Creating a background---------------

Creating a background for your xanga is actually really simple. The first decision you need to make is if you want your background to be a picture or just a solid color.

If you want your background a solid color...all you have to do is copy and paste this simple code into your website stats...

**NOTE: Replace "YOUR HTML COLOR HERE" with the HTML color code that you plan for your background to be...
To find a suitable color...go here.

If you want your background an image...Just follow these steps:

1. Find an image that has dimensions of at least 800 x 600
2. Right click on the image and "copy image location"
3. Go to your xanga "look and feel"
4. Scroll down to the part on your look and feel where it talks about the "background" (You should see a section where there's a color and then a text area)
5. In the text area beside "Pic:", erase "http://" because when you paste the image location, not erasing this will cause it to have two "http://"s...(I know that's hard to follow, but just erase it)
6. Paste the image location in the text area beside "Pic:"
7. Click "test pic", which is right beside the text area, and make sure that your background image appears in a popup that will come up soon after you click it
8. When it does, check it and then close it
9. Go down to the bottom of the page and click "save changes"

The next section, I assume, will be different for every person. I have made a guide to show how you how to get the image to be exactly where you want it.

"Top Left" If you want your image to be at the top, left corner of the page (which most people don't because it interferes with ad's and other pictures), you should select "top left" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location.	"Top Center" If you want your image to be at the top and centered on the page, you should select "top center" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. This selection works really well with long or tall images.	"Top Right" If you want your image to be at the top, right corner of the page, you should select "top right" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. I recommend this if you have an image with colors in it that is the same color of your text. Selecting this will help you avoid some difficulties, but not all.
"Center Left" If you want your image to be at the left and centered on the page, you should select "center left" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. Like I said before, this may cause problems and be in the way of other pictures and text. I do not recommend this selection.	"Centered" If you want your image to be centered, entirely, on the page, you should select "centered" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. This is what I would pick if I had a background picture that was 800 x 600 or above, and this is proven to be the most popular choice.	"Center Right" If you want your image to be at the right and centered on the page, you should select "center right" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. This is a good selection if you have a wide picture or it will still work for a picture 800 x 600 or above.
"Bottom Left" If you want your image to be on the left at the bottom on the page, you should select "bottom left" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. Once more I will warn you , this may get in the way of text and other pictures.	"Bottom Center" If you want your image to be centered at the bottom of the page, you should select "bottom center" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. This will work great for long or tall pictures, as well as an image 800 x 600 or above.	"Bottom Right" If you want your image to be on the right at the bottom on the page, you should select "bottom right" in the drop down menu under the text area where you pasted the image location. This is what many people use if they have a small image that they want to substitute for a background. When you select this, even if the image is small, it still works just as good as if it were 800 x 600.

Now that you've decided where you want your image on the page...You have to decide if you want your image to scroll with the page or be fixed. Let me explain the difference, because I had these mixed up at first, myself.
If the image scrolls with the page that means that it will stay at the top and, if you have a long page like me, when you scroll down you won't see it and it will still be at the top.
If the image is kept fixed that means that the image will actually stay in the same place no matter how much you scroll down, and you can see the image throughout the entire page.
At first, I had these confused and didn't know what I was doing or what "scroll with page" meant...but luckily, you have someone to explain it to you! =D

---------------Adding a cursor---------------

I have some links here that will take you to sites that have some neat cursors. No, I do not and will not make cursors. I use these cursors from these sites and you should too, because they're probably a lot bettter than any cursor that I would ever make.

**NOTE: Do not edit these site's codes in any way or they will not work. I have tried to alter the codes myself, but have failed many times while trying...=D When you have chosen a cursor that you like, if there is a choice, take the code that is for the "user lookup". These cursor codes were not originally used for xangas, but work great. I have found that the "user lookup" code works better with xanga.

Shadow of the Light
Shadow of the Light has many theme cursors from movies and shows such as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" =D, "Care Bears", "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and "Sleepy Hollow". There are even more movie cursors and the site has some music cursors featuring your favorite bands such as My Chemical Romance, Misfits, etc. I recommend this site and I get my cursors from here.

Soup-Faerie.com
Soup-Faerie.com has 22 pages of adorable cursors you will fall in love with. I use these cursors for many of my xangas, as well. These cursors are more on the colorful side and are 100% original.

Cloudneo.com
Cloudneo.com supplies 4 pages of custom cursors. Sure, they don't have 22 pages of cursors...but I promise that their cursors are so cute, you're sure to fall in love with one before you get to the 4th page. If I had to pick which site had the best anime cursors, this would be it.

I couldn't pick which site has the best overall cursors because they're all so cute and I use all of them. I'm sure you'll love them too.
**NOTE: Cursors and scrollbars may not show up on some browsers. They do work on Internet Explorer and AOL, but sometimes do not work on Netscape. I just wanted to have that known before you come complaining about the code not working. =D

---------------Adding a custom scrollbar---------------

Here's a code that will change the scrollbar on the side of the page to the exact colors you want. I will warn you now...The results of this code may not show up on some browsers. The code has been tested and does work, so enjoy! =D

**NOTE: Remember to replace everything in caps to the 6 numbers that make up the color that you want. For example, if you want the scrollbar itself to be black, you would replace "FACE COLOR HERE" with "000000".

---------------Adding a Chatterbox---------------

Every xanga site needs a chatterbox. Just incase you don't already know what a chatterbox is...let me explain. It's basically a small message board that goes on the right side of your xanga and people can leave you messages (with their name beside it) when they visit your site. You put it in your Javascript module on your look and feel page. Follow these steps to get a chatterbox:

1. Go to Chatter.Flooble.com to "get your free chatterbox"
2. Sign up there and enter in your information (Don't worry, not your real information...Just give them a telephone number like 123-456-7890 =D)
3. Copy the code that they give you for your chatterbox, after you have signed up
4. Paste the chatterbox code into the "Javascript Module" on your look and feel page

It's that simple...really. =D Just make sure that you put the code in the Javascript Module and nothing else!

---------------Adding a counter---------------

Every xanga needs a counter because I know that you will be interested in how many people visit your page. When someone accesses your xanga, the counter will add one person to the count. Unfortunately, it adds one when you refresh your page as well, but you can kind of get and idea of how many people visit your site per day.
I go to Amazing Counters to get my counters. They have a huge selection to pick from and all you have to do is sign up. It's completely free, like all of the other sites mentioned on my website. Have fun! =D

---------------Creating a marquee---------------

Let me explain exactly what a marquee is, to those of you who may not know. You use a marquee when you want a picture or group of words to scroll in one specified place. If you go to my xanga, here, at the bottom of the page you will see lyrics at the bottom scrolling upwards. To get them to scroll, I used a marquee. Marquee's are actually quite simple...when I give you a code. =D

**NOTE:
1. Replace "DESIRED DIRECTION" with the direction you want your words to scroll, such as "left, right, up, or down".
2. Replace "DESIRED DELAY" with how many seconds you want the marquee to wait before it starts scrolling. For instance, if you want the marquee to wait 4 second before it started to scroll, you would replace it with "4".
3. Replace "DESIRED AMOUNT" with how fast you want the marquee to scroll. If you want it to scroll fast you would put 9, but if you want it to scroll slow, you would put 1.
4. Replace "DESIRED HEIGHT" with the height of the specified place you want your marquee.
5. Replace "DESIRED WIDTH" with the width of the specified place you want your marquee.
6. Replace "DESIRED COLOR" with the color that you want your font to be, when it's scrolling.
7. Replace "TYPE WHAT WORDS YOU WANT TO SCROLL HERE" with the words that you want to scroll. Yeah, pretty self-explanatory. If you want an image to scroll in front of your text or in between your text you need to put this code where you want the picture.

To find an image's URL you should right-click on an image and select "copy image location". Some websites may have blocked direct linking, which means that when you copy the image location and try to use it on one of your sites, the image will not show up. This is a common problem, but can be fixed very easily. I use Imageshack.us, where I can upload any image on my computer to the internet, and I know that my images will always show up. To get a reliable image URL...save the desired image to your computer, and upload the image to imageshack. Imageshack should give you 4-6 links. You want the last one that has "direct link to image" beside it. This way, you should never have a broken image, or one that won't load.

That should most definitely get you started. If you have any questions, contact me by chosing one of the below:

Email: sicgamer667@yahoo.com
Xangas: