The WordPress Users Profile Area lets you how your name displays on your site, your e-mail address for administrative purposes, and additional information and personal options associated with your WordPress user account.
In this article you will learn how to change your user profile in WordPress and configure optional contact details.
You will also learn how to set up an information section that will display in the “Author Archives” section of your blog and how to use this feature to better promote users and their business online.
How To Change Your WordPress User Details
At the far right of the Toolbar is the Howdy, User Name section …
If you hover your mouse over this area it expands to display an image of your Gravatar, your name and username, and links pointing to your “Profile Screen” and a “Log Out” link …
Choose Edit My Profile…
Alternatively, to access your user profile using the dashboard menu, go to Users > Your Profile …
This open up the Profile screen …
The Profile section contains a number of subsections that let you view and edit information about your WordPress user account.
These include:
- Personal Options
- Name
- Contact Info
- About Yourself
- Password Settings
Let’s go through each of these options below …
Your Profile Options
Please refer to the screenshot above as you go through the descriptions below.
Main User Profile Section
1 – Accessing Your User Profile
As mentioned above, you can access your profile page by clicking on your username, which is displayed in the top right hand side of the screen, and selecting “Edit My Profile” from the drop-down menu, or selecting Users > Your Profile from the dashboard navigation menu.
Profile > Personal Options
Normally, you can just ignore this section, unless you specifically want to customize aspects of your WordPress site administration area that are only viewable to you (and no one else) such as disabling the visual editor when writing, changing the admin area’s color scheme, or enabling keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.
2 – Visual Editor
Ticking the “Disable the visual editor when writing” box disables the visual editor and uses the plain HTML editor instead.
Tip: If you experience problems when trying to add code to your pages or posts (e.g. HTML), try disabling the visual editor by ticking the checkbox in this section.
3 – Admin Color Scheme
In version 3.8, WordPress introduced a new design feature that allows you to customize the look of your WordPress Dashboard by changing the default WordPress color scheme …
WordPress User Profile: Changing Your Default WordPress Color Scheme
You can choose a new global color scheme for your WP administration area from the default choices, or customize the color scheme using various WordPress plugins …
Although this will not affect what your blog visitors see (your theme controls the external look of your site is controlled by your theme) or the functional aspects of your site, this feature can be used for branding the dashboard with your corporate colors, or allowing other site users to personalize their own dashboard area.
To learn how to further customize your WordPress dashboard, see the tutorial below:
Customizing Your WP Dashboard Section
4 – Keyboard Shortcuts
Checking this box allow you to use keyboard shortcuts when moderating comments.
5 – Toolbar
The Admin Toolbar displays at the very top of your Administration screen and provides you (and your registered site users) with access to a range of administration functions, features, information and “quick links” to other areas of your site …
Important: Leave the “Show Toolbar when viewing site” check box enabled to display the Admin Toolbar in your WordPress dashboard area.
To learn more about the WordPress toolbar, see the tutorial below:
WordPress Beginners Tutorial – The WordPress Dashboard Explained
Profile > Name
6 – Name > Username
Your username cannot be changed in the User Profile area by anyone, including the site administrator.
You can, however, change your username if you know how to edit your WP database.
You can also change your username from your WP Dashboard using an easier method that requires no code editing or messing with your WP database.
Changing your username will affect your login, as this username is required for logging into your WordPress site!
For a tutorial that teaches you you how to do this, go here:
How to change the admin username in WordPress – and why you should!
6 – Name > First Name / Last Name
You can modify the First Name and Last Name details in this section.
Just type a first name and last name into the text fields …
7 – Name > Nickname / Display Name Publicly As
If you want a different author name than the name you originally set up for your WordPress site to display on your posts, then change the Nickname (required) field and select another nickname from the Display name publicly as drop down menu …
You can add multiple nicknames to your profile section.
If you select a nickname, all your blog posts, comments, etc. will then display with the new nickname, instead of the name that you originally installed WordPress with.
Profile > Contact Info
8 – Contact Info > Email
Ensure that your correct email address is entered in the Email (required) field. This field is required (see “Notes” section below for more information).
9 – Contact Info > Website
Type your website or blog address in the Website field.
If you would like to display another URL in your profile, then enter the URL for that website or blog instead.
10 – Contact Info > Other
You can fill in the other Contact Info section fields, or just ignore these.
For more details about using this feature, refer to the “Your Profile: Additional Contact Information” section further below.
Profile > About Yourself
11 – About Yourself > Biographical Info
This section lets you insert a personal or business description for your visitors or blog readers.
For more details about this feature, see the “Your Profile: Tips” section further below.
12 – About Yourself > Password Settings
This section lets you change your login password details.
Use the New Password section only if you need to modify or reset your login password. You will need to enter the new password twice before the system can accept the password change.
For more information about what to do if you have lost or forgotten your WordPress password, go here:
Changing A Password In WordPress
13 – Log Out Of All Other Sessions
WordPress lets you log out of all current sessions except the one in your current browser. This is useful if, for example, you’ve left your account logged in at a public computer, or if you’ve lost or misplaced your phone.
14 – Update Profile
Remember to click the Update Profile button to save any changes you make to your user profile …
User Profile: Important Notes
- WordPress only requires your e-mail address and a nickname.
- Your email address is used only for administrative purposes.
- The email address on your profile is never sent to any other site (including WordPress) and it is never shown on your website (unless you specifically decide to display it, or use a theme that displays the email address).
- Only registered users of your blog have access to the email address you have entered.
- Each email address must be unique.
Also …
Installing certain plugins on your site (e.g. for adding social media features), may add or remove fields in your User Profile area (e.g. add a Twitter username field, insert additional functionality settings related to the plugin, etc…)
There are a number of plugins that let you modify user profile fields. You can find these plugins by typing in keywords like “user profile fields” in the “Add Plugins” section inside your dashboard …
See Tip #3 in the “Your Profile: Useful Tips” section below for an example of a free plugin that lets you remove unnecessary user profile fields.
WordPress User Profile: Additional Contact Information
As mentioned previously, the Profile area has a number of fields that allow you to enter additional contact information such as:
- AIM screen name
- Yahoo! Messenger ID
- Jabber / Google Talk name
Normally, most users just leave these fields empty. Some WordPress theme developers, however, may choose to display this and other contact information in their themes.
If this is the case, then you can set up accounts with these services (if you haven’t already done so) and then add your details to the appropriate fields in the Contact Info section.
WordPress provides default fields for the following services:
AIM
AIM is a desktop and mobile chat application that allows you to chat with friends or collaborate on a group project online …
Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger lets you connect and chat with friends from any web browser or mobile device …
Jabber / Google Talk
Although this field says “Jabber / Google Talk”, if you click on the link in this section, you will be taken to Google Hangouts.
Google Hangouts is an instant messaging and video chat platform developed by Google. It replaces three products that Google had previously implemented within its services, including Google Talk, Google Messenger (formerly: Huddle), and Hangouts, a video chat system present within Google …
Tip: If you plan to run webinars on your site using Google Hangouts, then see this article we’ve written about a great plugin that lets you create a business-level webinar platform on your WordPress site using Google Hangouts:
RunClick – WordPress Video Conferencing Software
Useful Tips Related To Your User Profile
Tip #1: Check the “Show Toolbar when viewing site box is ticked inside the Toolbar section of your Profile screen …
Tip #2: Your user profile gives you an additional opportunity to create additional backlinks which can be indexed by search engines.
To start with, add a Nickname and/or select a different name to display as the author on your blog posts …
Once you have done this, a link to the author displaying your specified nickname gets added to every blog post published on your site …
This link takes site visitors to the Author Archives section, where people can learn more about you (or about other authors publishing content on your site) and see all blog posts that you (or other authors) have published …
You can add hyperlinks and simple text formatting like bold and italicized words to improve your author description and promote yourself, your services, products, other websites, etc. to blog readers …
To do this just add HTML formatted text into the About Yourself > Biographical Info field in your Profile section …
Tip #3 (Advanced User): How To Hide User Profile Fields
If you plan to run a website that restricts what users can do, you can install a simple WP plugin called Hide User Profile Fields that hides the following fields from your site’s user profiles and creation pages when activated:
- Admin Color Profile
- Keyboard Shortcuts Checkbox
- Admin Toolbar
- AIM
- Google Talk
- Yahoo IM
- Website
- Biography description
- User Role (every new user is added as “Subscriber”)
To learn more, visit the plugin page here: Hide User Profile Fields
Congratulations! Now you know how to edit your user profile and personal options.
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