How do I change my profile picture? - You can change your profile picture in two ways. The first and easiest way is to just click the snapshot button in the IMVU 3D IM software. This will automatically update your profile picture. Don't worry, your old profile picture is still in your gallery for safe keeping.

The second way to change your profile picture is to click on the 'edit profile' link in the About me panel. This will bring you to your profile page. The second section down is called profile image settings. Just browse for an image on your machine or type in a URL to copy an image to the site. Press submit on the bottom of the page and your new will be submitted. You will get best results with images 220 pixels high and 160 pixels wide and below 50kb in size. Please allow a few minutes for the picture to show up.

How do I edit my profile? - You can change your profile information by clicking on the 'edit profile' link in the About me panel. The top section is called Profile information and contains everything you might want to change about your profile information.

How do I tell people about myself? - Click the edit button to open up the edit section for the About me panel. Type away and when you are finished, click save. The text you typed will show up at the bottom of the panel. You can also add custom HTML and CSS tags to this section.

Why do some people have "Guest_" before their name? - Everyone who registers for IMVU begins as a guest. When you pay the one time fee for your avatar name, the "Guest_" is removed and more options are available to you. Click here to purchase your avatar name.

What is my bestsellers? - If you are an IMVU Developer and sell products in the IMVU catalog, your top selling products will appear in this panel. If you want to get more information on a particular product, just click on its picture and you will be brought to that product's info page in the catalog.

What is my Blog? - Blog is short for weblog. A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Your blog can be updated as often as you like and those updates are immediately viewable by anyone visiting your homepage. The great thing about blogs is that they allow people with little or no technical background to update and maintain them.

What is this panel? - The contacting me panel allows other people to contact you when they visit your page. Although you obviously don't need to contact yourself when you are on your own page, you do have several options when it comes to this panel. First up, you can hide this panel. If you choose to show this panel, you have a very clear idea of where it is going to show up when others visit your page. Depending on the location of this panel, it can be easy or hard to contact you. Also, if you know how to use HTML and CSS tags, you can replace the standard art supplied by IMVU with whatever art you choose.

What do the icons mean? - Clicking 'Start a 3D IM' will send an invitation to chat in the IMVU 3D IM software. It will also prompt you to run the software if you do not already have it running.

Click 'Send a PM' if you want to send a Private message in the forums. The receiver of the PM will have to check the message at the bottom of the forums page.

Click 'Forward to friends' to send the link to the homepage you are visiting to a friend. In the send to friends window that appears, just type in your friend's e-mail address and click send.

Click 'Leave a message' to leave a message in the my messages section of the homepage you are visiting. You can choose to have this message be private and/or even include gifts.

Click 'Add to buddies' to send a buddy request. If they accept they will be added to your buddy list, and you can choose to display them in your buddies panel. This shows other people who your best friends are, allows you to quickly see if they are online or if there is anything new on their page, and more quickly invite them to chat in 3D.

Click 'Block' if you want to block this person from leaving you messages, visiting your page and inviting you to chat in 3D.

Who are these cool new people? - These are people that have signed on in the last couple of days and also had some chats in 3D. Click on their profile pic to go to their homepage. Go on and give them some love: chat with them in 3D and welcome them to IMVU.

How do I add a buddy? - There are two main places to add someone to your IMVU buddies - the 3D chat software or their homepage. To add someone from their homepage just click the 'Add to buddies' link in the Contacting panel. That person will then receive a Buddy request. If they decide to accept they will become a buddy and you both will appear in each other's Buddies list. The buddies panel on your homepage shows the top 12 people from your buddies list. Use the 'view all' link to display your entire buddies list. Drag buddies you would like to show on your homepage Buddies panel into one of the top 12 positions in this list.

What do the icons under the pictures mean? - The icons underneath the avatar pictures are quick reference guides to see if someone is online (you will see a green box with the word online) and if they have updated their homepage recently (you will see 4 animated dots).

How do I start a 3D chat? - To start a 3D chat, just click on the 'Chat in 3D' link in the Contacting panel of the person's homepage. For other ways to chat, click here.

How do I see my friends' homepages? - To see your friends' homepages, just click on their profile picture or, if you prefer to type in a URL in your browser, just add their avatar name to the end of this string: http://avatars.imvu.com/ (ex. http://avatars.imvu.com/matt)

Why do some people have "Guest_" before their name? - Everyone who registers for IMVU begins as a guest. When you pay the one time fee for your avatar name, the "Guest_" is removed and more options are available to you. Click here to purchase your avatar name.

What is my gallery? - Your gallery is a place to store, manage, and edit your pictures. These pictures can be commented on or even sent in an e-card. There are currently two views to your gallery: albums view and images view.

Albums view - Your gallery starts out in albums view. Albums can store an unlimited number of images inside them. To create a new album, make sure you're in albums view and click "+ Create new album" at the top right. Then simply follow the instructions to submit the album. The thumbnail that displays for your album is automatically chosen from the images inside until you change it to another image - see "Edit mode" below.

Images view - To see the images inside an album, simply click the album, or click the "zoom in" icon on the bottom right of the album in the grid view. When browsing images, click the image or the "zoom in" icon to get an enlarged view at its normal size in a new browser window. You might need to disable popup blocking software for this to work. Click the "zoom out" icon to go back to albums view.

Navigation - You can see your albums and images both on the top, in a horizontal layout, and the bottom, in a grid layout. These represent the same information, and you'll notice that the same thumbnails are displayed in each. To move around the data, simply drag them around - dragging the top panel (top bar) only works horizontally while dragging the bottom panel (grid view) works both horizontally and vertically. You can also "throw" these panels by grabbing, dragging and immediately releasing the mouse - this is handy if there is a lot of content to navigate. In addition, you can click on the breadcrumb text at the top left to get back to an area you were at previously.

Edit mode - If you're logged in and looking at your own home page, you'll get an additional "pencil" icon in the icons area in both album and image modes. Clicking this icon will bring up an edit menu for either the album or the image that you're currently hovering over. Simply choose an item from the menu and follow the directions to edit your albums and images - you can delete, move, rename, and more, including making an image your avatar picture.

How do I upload a picture? - You can instantly upload photos to your gallery (without leaving your homepage) by clicking the 'upload image' link in your My Gallery panel. You can also upload snapshots from the IMVU 3D IM software to your gallery by just clicking the snapshot button. Currently, using the snapshot button to upload replaces your profile picture.

How do I change my profile picture? - You can change your profile picture in two ways. The first and easiest way is to just click the snapshot button in the IMVU 3D IM software. This will automatically update your profile picture. Don't worry, your old profile picture is added to your gallery for safe keeping.

The second way to change your profile picture is to click on the 'edit profile' link in the About me panel. This will bring you to your profile page. The second section down is called profile image settings. Just browse for an image on your machine or type in a URL to copy an image to the site. Press submit on the bottom of the page and your new will be submitted. Please allow a few minutes for the picture to show up.

How do I leave a message? - You can leave a message by clicking the 'Leave a message' links in either the Contacting panel or in the My Messages panel. When you click one of these links, you are brought to a separate browser window that contains an area to type your message, check whether the message is private or public, give a gift and choose gift wrap. Edit these boxes and press submit. Your message is now sent and, if public, will appear on the receiver's homepage (hint: click the refresh button on your browser to get the message to appear).

What are gifts? - When you send a message to someone, you can also give them a gift. In IMVU, gifts are products from the IMVU catalog. These can be anything from Stickers to scenes to avatars to anything that can be purchased in the catalog. When you want to give a gift, you do so by including it in a message. You can give people gifts when you leave them messages on their homepage. Just click any of the 'Leave a message' links on their page and go to the Send a message page. In the Gift dropdown menu, choose a gift from the receiver's wishlist or from the standard list. You can also start a gift message by clicking on any product in their wishlist. You can add other gifts to this list by clicking on the 'add to giftlist' button on any product's info page. Another handy button on the same page is the 'add to wishlist' button which allows you to add any product to your wishlist. This helps others decide what to give to you when they want to give you a gift.

How do I give a gift? - You can give people gifts when you leave them messages on their homepage. Just click any of the 'Leave a message' links on their page and go to the Send a message page. In the Gift dropdown menu, choose a gift from the receiver's wishlist or from the standard list. You can add other gifts to this list by clicking on the 'add to giftlist' button on any product's info page.

What happens when I receive a message or gift? - When you receive a message or gift, you will receive an e-mail telling you that there is a message waiting for you. If your message is public, it will appear on your homepage in the My messages section. If it is a private message, click on a 'view all' in your My messages header. This will bring up a separate window containing an unedited list of your messages. (NOTE: this process will shortly be replaced)

What does view all mean? - If you want to see all of your messages or see a private message, click on a 'view all' in your My Messages header. This will bring up a separate window containing an unedited list of your messages. (NOTE: this process will shortly be replaced)

How do I start a 3D chat? - To start a 3D chat, just click on the 'Chat in 3D' link in the Contacting panel of the person's homepage. For other ways to chat, click here.

What is my music? - The my music panel allows you to search for your favorite music albums and select them to appear on your homepage.

How do I add to my music? - To add to my music, Click 'Edit music list' and you are brought to My Music selection page. When you enter search criteria and click "go", a list of albums appears on the right side of this page with more detail on each album below. Clicking any album cover will add the album to your home page, allowing visitors to see your favorite music and to purchase that album if they choose.

itunes playlist - You can also import your itunes playlist by following the steps at the bottom of the My Music selection page.

What are rankings? - If you like to know how you stack up against your fellow avatars, rankings are for you!

What do the icons mean? - Click here to learn more about the ranking icons. You can also click on the icons themselves to get to this same page.

What is the My Collectibles panel? - Your My Collectibles panel displays collectible products that you have purchased.

What are collectible products? - Collectible products are specific products from IMVU that are only available for a limited time or in limited quantities.

What is the my Room panel? - Your Room panel automatically displays your most recent room snapshot.

To take a room snap shot:

* Only landscape pictures taken in a room that you own can be uploaded to your room panel
** All uploaded pictures will also be added to your gallery panel

What is my RSS? - RSS stand for Really Simple Syndication and is a format for sharing content among different Web sites for free. How does it work? A Web site can allow other sites to publish some of its content by creating an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A web publisher can post a link to the rss feed so users can read the distributed content on his/her site. Syndicated content can include news feeds, listings of events, stories, headlines, movies, etc.

How do I add an RSS feed? - Adding an RSS feed is really simple. First, find a site that has an RSS feed for you to add. This is typically found by clicking on the orange, XML icon on that site. When you click on that icon, you are typically brought to a page that contains one or more RSS feeds. Copy one of those URLs and then click the 'edit' link in the My RSS panel on your homepage. On the new window that appears, you can just paste in the copied URL into the URL section at the top of the page and click the 'Save to My IMVU Page' button on the right. Other options on this page are for advanced users.

What is my URL? - Your URL is a direct link to your IMVU avatar homepage. Use it to tell your friends where to find you or to introduce yourself to somebody new! Sometimes, it is possible for people to get to your page using a URL outside of the standard URL. In case someone does arrive at your page this way, the My URL panel allows them to copy your URL for future visits.

You can also tell people about your homepage by adding the link to your other sites or blogs, your AIM info box, your Yahoo! Mail signature and your Hotmail signature. Click the 'tell your friends about your homepage' link in the My URL panel to learn more.

What is the interests panel? - This panel is where you keep a list of words that best describe you, stuff that you are interested in, people, music, etc that you think are cool. Each word that you enter is clickable. Clicking on a word takes you to a page showing other people that also have this word in their interests panel. For this reason it is best to choose words that are not too common. For example words like 'avatar' and 'cool' wont really say much about you. Try to think of specific words that describe you.

*Note: Each word is an interest. If you put 'I like chamber music' in your interests panel, that is actually 4 interests, none of them very ... interesting. Best to put 1 word 'chambermusic'.

Who are my visitors? - The people who show up in your My Visitors panel are the people who have most recently visited your homepage. You can click on their profile pictures to go to their homepages.

Why can I leave myself a message? - haha - no, this isn't a bug. The reason this link is shown is so you don't put Stickers over it by accident. If you accidentally put a sticker in this location, people will not be able to click the 'Leave a message' link. If you choose to put a Sticker here, people can still leave a message via the Contacting panel...unless you put a Sticker over that too.

What do the icons under the pictures mean? - The icons underneath the avatar pictures are quick reference guides to see if someone is online (image) and if they have updated their homepage recently (image).

How do I start a 3D chat? - To start a 3D chat, just click on the 'Chat in 3D' link in the Contacting panel of the person's homepage. For other ways to chat, click here.

Why do some people have "Guest_" before their name? - Everyone who registers for IMVU begins as a guest. When you pay the one time fee for your avatar name, the "Guest_" is removed and more options are available to you. Click here to purchase your avatar name.

What are gifts? - When you send a message to someone, you can also give them a gift. In IMVU, gifts are products from the IMVU catalog. These can be anything from Stickers to scenes to avatars to anything that can be purchased in the catalog. When you want to give a gift, you do so by including it in a message. You can give people gifts when you leave them messages on their homepage. Just click any of the 'Leave a message' links on their page and go to the Send a message page. In the Gift dropdown menu, choose a gift from the receiver's wishlist or from the standard list. You can add other gifts to this list by clicking on the 'add to giftlist' button on any product's info page. Another handy button on the same page is the 'add to wishlist' button which allows you to add any product to your wishlist. This helps others decide what to give to you when they want to give you a gift.

What is my wishlist? - Your wish list is the list of products from the IMVU catalog that you hope someone will give to you. This is quite handy for the person giving you the gift, actually, as they don't need to search for the perfect gift - you've already told them what the perfect gift is. It also helps cut down on gifts that you don't necessarily want. Clicking on the product image in anyone's wishlist panel will bring you to that product's catalog page so you can learn more about it.

How do I add gifts to my wishlist? - To add gifts to your wishlist, simply go to the info page of the product you want in the IMVU catalog and click the 'add to wishlist' button found on the bottom left.

What is this? - This is where you can show everyone who the most important IMVUer in your life is! To get started, click change and enter an avatar name and a special message you want the whole world to know. If things get rocky, you can click 'go it alone' and not have any special someone on display.

What is the 'who loves me' panel? - This shows you everyone on IMVU who has chosen you as their special someone, as well as what they had to say about you in their special message.

What is this? - The 'My Outfits' panel is where your recently saved public outfits are displayed. Public outfits are outfits that you have classified as 'for everyone' when saving the outfit. Visitors can try on these public outfits in the dressing room, and if they like one, they can add it to their shopping cart and buy any or all of the items in the outfit.

How do I add outfits to this panel? - In the IMVU 3D chat program, open a room window and dress up your avatar. Then type this exactly: *saveOutfit. Buttons for taking a snapshot will appear, and after you photograph your outfit you will get a web page where you can name and save the outfit. Recently saved outfits classified as 'for everyone' will appear in the 'My Outfits' panel.

What is this? - The 'My Groups' panel displays the IMVU Groups to which you currently belong along with some current activity from that group such as recent posts within the group and the name of the avatar who made that post.

What is this? - The 'My Videos' panel lets you play videos for visitors to your homepage. You can place one or more videos in this panel by getting "embed" codes from video sites like YouTube and pasting them into the custom HTML of the panel.

How do I add a video? - Just click the "edit" button in the upper right corner of the panel and select Edit Custom HTML/CSS. Then paste the code directly into the box and click save. Click on the Preview button in the upper right corner of your page to view your video.

Remember, putting too many videos on a page can make your avatar homepage take a long time to download!

What is this? - The 'My Slideshow' panel lets you show off pictures from your Gallery in a customizable slideshow.

What is this? - The 'My Badges' panel is where badges that you have set as 'auto grant' will be displayed. Visitors to your page can select any of your badges displayed in this panel and have them automatically added to their badge collection. This makes it easy to provide your badges to anyone who wants them. If you want to restrict who can get your badges, use the Panel Visibility Settings on your account settings page to choose a sub-set of visitors, e.g. your buddies.