If you are an avid user of forums or message boards, then you are no stranger to what a forum signature is. Chances are, you are reading this because you want to know how to make one for your account as well. For those who may not know this already, the forum signature is that little area of text and/or pictures that appears under a person's message board post.
When you sign up for a message board, you do not have a signature that goes with your name. In fact, you will not have one unless you take it upon yourself to make your own. Many people love the look of a unique forum signature. However, the problem lies with knowing how to put them in. If you are going for a very specific look, you will need to use special codes to make that look happen.
The good news is that everything you need to know about creating free forum signatures, or forum sigs, is listed in this article. Here's how:
Learn BBCode. BBCode is what will make your signature appear exactly how you want it. BBCode is a special code that is similar to HTML. While not all message boards use BBCode, the vast majority of forums do.
The main difference between HTML and BBCode is the tags that control the code. BBCode uses [ and ] brackets where HTML uses < and > brackets.
If you are completely uncomfortable using BBCode, a good trick would be to open a new message and write your signature in the message box. This will allow you to use the clickable interface for special features (such as bold, italics, font color, etc.) and quotes.
Once you have your signature the way you want it you can easily copy it and paste it in the appropriate box where your signature will be listed.
Create your Signature. Once you are familiar with BBCode, it will be time to make your signature. You can do many things with BBCode, so you should try to have a good idea of what you want your signature to look like.
You can make text bigger and smaller and color it as well. If you want, you can make the text bold, underlined, or italicized. You can also add links and pictures to your signature. This is all done through BBCode coding.
As long as you use the following codes, your signature should look exactly like you want it to look.
Note: When you create the codes, there should be no spaces between the bracket and the first word and between the last word and the closing bracket.
Use these codes when making forum signatures:
[b]To make your text bold[/b]
[u]To make the text underlined[/u]
[i]Text you want Italicized[/i]
[size=5]Text you want Sized[/size]
(sizes go from 1 (too small to read) and 29 extremely large.)
[color=red]Text you want Red[/color]
or using a hex color [color=#666666]Text you want Gray[/color]
[quote="Name of person you are quoting"]Text you are quoting[/quote]
[url="http://url you wish to add"]Text you want to be clickable[/url]
[email]Your Email[/email]
[img]URL of image[/img]
Add your Signature to Your Profile. Once your forum signature has been coded, all you need to do is add it to your profile. To do this, go to the forum and sign-in. Once you are signed in, click on the profile button or another area where you can change your personal information.
In this area, you should find a signature box. Paste your signature code into this area and save the changes that you have made. If you want your signature to show up with every post you make, you need to make sure that this is noted in your profile preferences.
Most forums have a box you can check underneath your signature to make every post show your signature. If it is not clicked, or you do not want the signature to show up after every single post, then you will need to add your signature to specific posts manually by clicking a check box near the bottom of the message screen when you are replying to a post or creating a new post.
Note: This box should say "Attach Signature." It will be located beneath the box where you type the body for your forum topics and replies.
Check out your New Signature. Once you click "Save" in the profile area, you are done. It is really as simple as that. You can go to the forum and make a post to see what your new signature looks like. If everything is how you want it to be, then you are done.
If you want to make some changes, you can go back to the profile area and make them until you have the signature just the way you want it.
Now you know how to make forum sigs. If you want to create a really cool signature, try making one that moves next.
Quick Tips:Every time you change your signature (after the first time), it will automatically update to the new version on every post that you have made on the forum since you first added a signature.
You can combine BBCode to make your text as specific as you want it. For instance, you can change the text size, color, and make it bold on one specific text line or word.
