If you have a MySpace page, chances are that you will be inclined to customize your profile so as to best reflect your personality or mood. Engaging in this task requires following certain steps within the MySpace "profile" menu. The resulting modifications from following those steps may be as simple or as complex as you wish to make them. This page will provide you with a guide on how to customize your MySpace profile. Needless to say, it will require that you have an active MySpace account. Registration is free and takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Simply navigate to MySpace.com, click on the register tab and enter the information requested.

Once you have registered, or if you already have an existing MySpace account, familiarizing yourself with the steps for customizing your profile will take you fifteen to thirty minutes. Afterwards, the time that it will take you to apply this knowledge will depend entirely on the frequency with which you modify your profile's appearance and the level of complexity which you wish to apply to its styling.

In order to customize your MySpace profile, you must first log in to your MySpace account. Following that, on the top navigation bar, hover your cursor over the third tab which should be titled "Profiles." From the drop-down menu that is activated, select the "customize profile " option.

This will open the control panel which will appear in the upper portion of your web browser window. The rest of your MySpace page will still be visible, but it will its content will be displaced downward while the control panel remains open.

On the top section of the control panel you will find a tab selection titled "Go Back to Profile 1.0." Click on this option to revert back to the original default settings for your MySpace page. You can always use this if during your customization efforts you wish to return to the generic look for your profile. You may find this necessary in the event that the visual result that you obtained was not what you would have liked.

The middle section contain the "Preview," "Exit" and "Publish" buttons. These you can use to either preview the changes that you are making as you go along; publish the changes that you have made; or to exit the control panel with an option to not save any of the changes made.

The bottom section is the actual control panel from which you can control the appearance and modules of your MySpace page. Each function will be explained in the steps below, remember you can use all of the functions or select only those for the areas that you wish to customize.

If you are looking for a simple method to customize your MySpace page, selecting the "Appearance" function on the left-hand side of the control panel will activate the "Select Theme" and "Change Layout" options of the control panel. Selecting "Select Theme" will open a list of all available themes for your page. It is as simple as navigating through the options presented, selecting the one that you like most and clicking on the "Publish" button. This will automatically modify your background image, module colors and fonts as per the selected theme.

Selecting the "Change Layout" option will allow you to select from different options for the page width and arrangement of your modules. Graphical icons are presented within the control panel to give you a schematic view of the layout options available. Again, once you are happy with one, click on the "Publish" button to save your changes.

Accessing the "Advanced Edit" feature will allow you to have greater control over the changes to your page. By selecting each of the subcategories with the feature, you will be able to change the font style, scrolling function, background color, font color and background image that you wish to use for your page and the modules within it.

If you wish to insert an image for your background, you would simply insert the URL that corresponds to the image file that you wish to utilize in the field box labeled "URL." If you just wish to use a color as opposed to an image, simply leave this field blank.

The "CSS" function allows you to import themes from third-party websites by inserting the CSS code that you are provided with in this section. By selecting the "CSS" feature a text box will open immediately to the left, in which you must paste the CSS code provided to you from the third party source. Upon clicking "Publish," your new theme will be reflected on your page.

You may add or remove modules from your MySpace page by selecting the "Modules" function on the left-hand side of the control panel. In so doing, all of the modules available for your page will be displayed. Those appearing in yellow accompanied with a smiley face icon are those that are already installed on your page. Those that are shaded blue with a "+" icon are modules not currently active on your page.

By hovering over each of the module option you may choose to add or remove a module by clicking once over it. This may be repeated as many times as you wish.

Once you have determined which modules you want to appear on your MySpace page, with the control panel still open, you may scroll down your page and use your mouse to drag the accepted modules to the position that you wish them to occupy on your page. This will give you added customization over the "Change Layout" feature described in step 2 of this how-to guide.

Keep in mind, there is no wrong or right way to establish the look of your page. It should define your personality and be functional for those visiting your page as well as yourself.