Customizing your LiveJournal is half the fun. You can choose one of the pre-set layouts offered by LiveJournal (and there are new ones designed regularly), or you can download one from some creative users. You can even try your hand at making your own, as many styles offer the option to change the colors, upload pictures, and much more!
When you click on the link for "Customize your Journal," this is where you'll be taken. Depending on what settings you have, it may look different, but by default, users are set to use S2 Generator as their default style. From here, you can customize text, colors, and more.
#1 - The tabs at the top are your navigation. Your best bet is to progress through them sequentially. You can go from one tab to the other without saving; once you click "Save," all your changes will take effect, so be sure that the settings on ALL the tabs are what you want! The first tab, "Basics," is seen above; the rest of the tabs we'll see in a moment.
#2 - Your journal should have a title. You can call it whatever you want, and even give it a subtitle. This will display (usually in the header of your journal's layout) on your journal, and your Friends Page title will appear on that page. Make sure they're all unique and different!
#3 - The link list is supported by many layouts. You can choose up to 10 different links to display in a box on your layout, if your layout supports it. Some custom layouts (made by other users) require at least one link. You can link to your homepage, a social networking site such as MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster, or even just a favorite website. The links themselves will only show up if your layout supports the Link List, and if you've enabled it in your layout.
#4 - The Style System is what makes your journal look different from everyone else's. If you want to try your hand at coding your own journal's appearance, give S1 a try. Otherwise, stick with the myriad options S2 has to offer. This guide will assume you're using S2.
#5 - This box tells you a short summary of what your journal is using-- the name of the style, the type (whether it was automatically created by a "wizard" or if it's a custom style made by someone else), and your Mood Theme. LiveJournal, like many other journaling services, offers "moods" to help customize your individual entries. Let's say you're feeling excited when you make a particular post. You can choose the "excited" theme, and depending on your mood theme selection (there are a number of default selections that are free, and you can also pay to have your own custom images), a picture will show-- perhaps an excited-looking cat, or an excited alien. Only Paid users can have custom mood themes, and they must upload the images on their own webspace, or the LiveJournal ScrapBook.
#6 - If you maintain a community, you can customize the community journal here, too-- no need to go to a special community section. Just click on "switch user" and choose the other username from the drop down list. Communities don't have individual logins (separate usernames and passwords)-- they only have maintainers/owners with their usernames and passwords. So when you change the layout for the community, you don't have to log out and log in again.
#1 - Here's where you'll chose which S2 layout you want. Each layout has a variety of "themes," which affect the images and colors used by the layout. Each layout looks different, has different options, and can do different things. Your Journal, Friends Page, Calendar, and other parts of your journal will all be in the same layout, unless you use S1 to customize them differently. Again, for this guide, we'll be using S2. You can check out the available layouts and themes by clicking on the "Samples" links next to the drop-down menus.
#2 - Like above, you can choose themes that are specific for each layer. Each theme alters the images and colors used in the layout. Be sure to check out the "Samples" before you save the changes.
#3 - If you want to use your own custom mood icons, you can choose them from here. You can also choose one of many LiveJournal default sets, including kittens, smiley faces, aliens, Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and much more. You can also click the checkbox to force YOUR mood theme of choice to show up on your friends' entries, even if they use their own custom mood set.
The next option, "Custom Options," is where you can really have fun. In the first segment, "Presentation," you can choose the number of columns to use, the number of entries to show on your journal and on your Friends Page, and how those entries are displayed. Likewise, you can choose to view Comment Pages (when you make or read comments to a journal entry) in your own journal style, or in the LiveJournal default style, which resembles the homepage you've selected in your Viewing Options. You can also choose whether to use a community's default userpic instead of the individual users that post in that community.
Next, you can choose whether to show scrollbars, userpics, userpics on your Friends Page, on your Entry Page (that's the first page in your journal), or in comments. You can specify that each entry have particular HTML in it, if you know it. This "entry footer" html acts the same way as a "signature" on a message board might; it'll appear at the end of EVERY entry you make! Finally, you can choose whether to use custom colors for your Navigation Bar/Navigation strip, if your layout supports it and you have it enabled. You can stick with the default gray shades, or you can make it your own color!
The other sections are Colors, which lets you specify everything from link to background color, Text, which lets you customize things like your Comment Text (for example, instead of "comment" you can have it say "say something", and instead of "3 comments," you can have it say "3 people said something") and the titles of your boxes (for example, your Link List doesn't have to be called a Link List... it can be called whatever you want!), Sidebars, which include your Calendar, Links, a sample of your entry titles, and your tags, and finally, Custom CSS, which lets you tweak your layout even more by maniuplating colors, shapes, and images.
Finally, if you're feeling bold and know what you're doing, check out the Advanced section of the Customize Your Journal area. You can play with layers, read the documentation, and check out your available styles. Be sure to read the instructions before you play with anything here, though!