Facebook has decided that all of its users' account will be upgraded to the new profile, which was introduced last December. Even though not everybody likes the arrangement that comes with the new profile, the new layout opens up to some cool "hacking" possibilities.
It's said that Alexandre Oudin - a French artist - was the first one who explored the possibilities of creatively "refacing" the new profile page. Since then, many people have come up with their own version of a personalized profile page. As the refacing process required some skills in photo editing and the tenacity to find the perfect arrangement, most of us couldn't (or wouldn't) join in the craze. But that was in the past. Today, everything can be done easily in a few steps with the help of an online tool called FB Photo Magic.
Let's Create Some Magic
If you want to join all the cool kids on Facebook, why don't you try to reface your own profile page? Go to the FB Photo Magic website and click the "Start" button.
Click "Choose File" to pick the picture that you want to upload and then click "Upload Photo". Based on my experiment, it's advisable to pre-process the photo prior to uploading it. Not only will you get the portion of the image that you want, but you will also get a smaller size compared to the original picture.
The first thing that you will notice after the uploading process is the drop down list of "Text lines". This list asks you to choose one of the numbers according to how many lines there are on your profile page.
To get the figure, go to your profile page and count the lines under your name next to your profile picture.
Then you can set the image template. You can resize the box and move it around. The parts of the picture under the white boxes are the ones that will show up on your profile page. Adjust the boxes' position so that they will overlay portions of the image that you want to show.
Click the "Save" button at the top right corner of the page, then continue by clicking "Upload to Facebook".
A confirmation window will open, asking you to allow FB Photo Magic to access your Facebook account.
When everything is done, you'll see the success message along with quick instructions on how to set everything up.
Completing The Process
Now we are a few steps away before we finish the refacing process. To complete the journey, log into your Facebook account and go to the "Photos" page by clicking on the link in the sidebar under the profile picture. Then open the FB Photo Magic album.
Inside the album, you will see a set of "puzzle" photos that you've just created. Click on the last picture to open it. This last picture is the largest picture on the left that will be your profile picture.
Go to the lower part of the photo page and click on the link "Make Profile Picture".
Then click "Okay" in the confirmation window.
And you're done.
Just for the sake of the experiment, I created another set of profile pictures using my daughter's photo, activated it, and decided to keep the result (she's a lot more photogenic than I!)
An Alternative And Few Notes
FB Photo Magic is not the only application that you can use to reface your Facebook profile page. Another alternative that I found is Schweppes Profile App. The working process is similar to FB Photo Magic. However, during my experiment, I was always stuck on the "uploading to Facebook" step. But feel free to try it, maybe you'll have better luck.
Please note that even though I used FB Photo Magic with several images without any problem, one of the profile images that I got was distorted. So if you get distorted image, you could repeat the process or use alternative images. Use the "Preview" feature before uploading the result to Facebook.
Since the images shown on your profile page are actually images tagged with your name, it's possible that the set that you created is replaced by more recent set of images also tagged with your name. If this happens, you could hover above the images that you don't want and click on the "X" to close them. Doing this will not erase the images. You just keep them off your profile page.
I found that refacing my Facebook profile page is fun. You should try it yourself and enjoy the time when your friends beg you to tell them how to do it!
---------------
Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
---------------
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
Customise Your Facebook Profile With MyStuff (2 comments)
3+ Ways to Customise Your Facebook Profile Picture (5 comments)
Threadsy - Integrates Your Email and Social Networks (+Invites) (32 comments)
The Truth About the Stalker Tracker on Facebook (28 comments)
The 10 Most Controversial Facebook Fan Pages (11 comments)
Share Anything, Anytime, Anywhere with Sendible [MakeUseOf Giveaway] (22 comments)
Retaggr Lets People Know Who You Are (10 comments)
MobileRSS: An iPhone Google Reader App with Social Media Integration (20 comments)
Manage Your Social Networks in One Place With Pond (100 Invites!) (27 comments)
Legacy Locker - Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4 comments)
No comments:
Post a Comment