So let's get going and add some details to your profile:
- Click on the Content button on the main menu.
- You will notice that Mahara has opened the Content submenu. The Profile tab is selected when you first enter your content space. Let's take a quick look at Janet's profile. You will notice that the About me tab is selected. Janet has already entered her name:
- Say something about yourself! Scroll down to the Introduction section of the About me page and enter some text. Here is what Janet typed in:
- Whenever you make any changes, click on the Save Profile button at the bottom of the page. If you don't, you may find yourself losing all your hard work! This can happen sometimes if there is a period of inactivity and you get logged out.
- Next, click on the Contact information tab to the right of the About me tab.
- You will see that you are expected to fill out some telephone numbers and addresses. The first thing you should notice is that you can have more than one e-mail address in a Mahara site. These different e-mail addresses can be displayed via your profile page. To add another e-mail address, click on the link Add email address. You then need to click on the Save Profile button at the bottom of the page to action the new e-mail addition. The e-mail address will receive a confirmation e-mail from the Mahara site, and you will have to go to your e-mail account and follow the link to confirm that it is genuine.
- You can now use radio buttons to toggle which e-mail address you would like to be the primary one for your account. This selection is important because at this address you will receive system messages. You will also notice that you can delete an e-mail address by clicking the small, red-colored cross to the right of the e-mail address.
- Fill in your contact information on this page. Remember, you don't have to complete all the fields if you don't want to, but even if you add them, they aren't seen by anybody else until you decide what to share.
- Click on the Messaging tab. Mahara will bring together the types of people you are likely to engage within live text, audio, and video conversations. People can display these contact details to each other in their profile page and other portfolio pages. Enter your contact details for the services you use on this page.
- Finally, click on the General tab. On this page, enter your Occupation and Industry (remember to click on the Save Profile button when you have finished). The following screenshot shows what Janet Norman typed for these fields:
You have just completed your profile by entering some information about yourself, including your personal information, what messaging tools you use, and your industry background.
You were hopefully able to add your first name, last name, and other personal information in the About me section. Sometimes, though, the modification of the input fields you see in this section may be restricted depending on what has been allowed by the administrator; you may not be able to edit your name, for example.
Both the contact information and messaging information are private and will only be seen if you add them to a page. This is because you don't necessarily want anybody in the Mahara site to be able to see your telephone number and address for security reasons.
Tip
Help!
If you have found so far that you wish you had a bit more information about what certain options do, then don't worry! Mahara is very well documented software. On most pages, you will see little help icons, that look something like this:
If ever in doubt, click on these and you will be given very useful and specific help relating to your area of doubt.
You can also access a very complete Mahara user manual by visiting http://bit.ly/mahara15manual.
Let's now continue to add some more stuff into your profile with profile pictures.
Profile pictures bring your profile to life! They are the first thing that people see about you when they are interacting with you in different areas of the site.
Mahara allows you to upload up to five different profile pictures. This becomes very useful (as you will see in Chapter 4, Organize and showcase your portfolio) when you are making pages out of your stuff.
Out of the five pictures that you add, one must always be the default. Your default picture is the main picture that will be shown throughout the site, for example in the Online users side block or in a group you are a member of.
After that, you can use any of your five profile pictures when presenting your profile block within a Mahara page. This is great because you can present yourself to different audiences in different ways, simply by altering your profile picture. For example, you can display a serious passport photo to your professional work colleagues, a more informal photo to your closest work colleagues, perhaps an avatar for public groups where you would like to be a bit more anonymous, and a picture of you having fun at a party for some of your more social interactions.