Contents
- How To Edit Your WordPress User Profile
How To Edit Your WordPress User Profile
Your Profile screen lets you specify your name and how to display it on your site, your e-mail address for administrative purposes, optional contact information, and personal settings.
In this post, you will learn about editing WordPress user profiles.
We will also show you how to set up a user information section that will automatically display on your site in the “Author Archives” area and how to use this feature to better promote an author or their business online.
How To Edit Your WordPress User Profile And Personal Options
On the far right-hand side of the Toolbar is the “Howdy, User Name” section …
If you hover your mouse over this panel it displays an image of your Gravatar, your name and username, and links to your “Profile Screen” and a “Log Out” link …
Select Edit My Profile…
Alternatively, to access your user profile area using the main navigation menu, go to Users > Your Profile …
This brings you to the Profile area …
The Profile area contains various subsections that let you view and edit information about your user account.
These include:
- Personal Options
- Name
- Contact Info
- About Yourself
- Change Password
Let’s now review each of these sections below …
Your Profile Options
Please refer to the above screenshot as you work through the descriptions below.
Main Profile Screen
1 – How To Access Your Profile
As we’ve already described, you can always access your profile section by clicking on the “Howdy, User Name” tab, which is displayed on 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 main dashboard 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 this box disables the visual editor and uses the plain HTML editor instead.
Tip: If ever you experience any issues 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 select a different color scheme for your WordPress admin area from the default choices provided, or add a custom color scheme using various WordPress plugins …
Although this has no impact on what your site visitors see (themes control the look of your site is controlled by your theme) or the functionality of your site or blog, this feature can be used to brand the dashboard with your corporate colors, or allowing other site users to personalize their own admin area.
To learn how to further customize your WordPress dashboard, see the tutorial below:
4 – Keyboard Shortcuts
Checking this box allow you to navigate rapidly and perform actions on comments using keyboard shortcuts.
5 – Toolbar
The Admin Toolbar displays at the very top of your Admin screen and provides you (and your logged in site users) with access to a number of admin functions, features, information and “quick links” to other areas of your site …
Note: Leave the “Show Toolbar when viewing site” check box enabled to display the Admin Toolbar in your WordPress dashboard.
To learn more about using the WordPress toolbar, see the tutorial below:
Profile > Name
6 – Name > Username
The username cannot be changed in the User Profile area by anyone, including the site admin.
You can, however, change your username if you know how to edit your WP database.
You can also change your username inside the WordPress Dashboard using an easier method that requires no messing with code or modifying your WP database.
Changing your username will affect your login, as this username is required for logging into your WordPress site!
We have created a tutorial that explains how to do this here:
6 – Name > First Name / Last Name
You can change the First Name and Last Name data in this section.
Just type the first name and last name into the name fields …
7 – Name > Nickname / Display Name Publicly As
If you want to display a different author name than the one you originally set up for your site or blog in your posts, then change the Nickname (required) field and select a different nickname from the Display name publicly as drop down menu …
You can add multiple nicknames in your profile section.
Once you select a nickname, all your posts, comments, etc. will appear with the new nickname, instead of the name that you originally registered 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
Enter your website or blog URL into the Website field (optional).
If you have another website or business blog that you would like to display in your profile, then enter the address 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 this feature, refer to the “WordPress User 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.
This feature not only lets you tell the world about yourself or your business, it can also be used to convert new visitors into leads for your products or services.
For great tips on how to write a truly compelling bio section that will help improve your conversions, see the article below:
For more details about using this feature, see the “User Profile: Useful 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 are required to change your login password. You will need to enter your new password twice before the system can accept the password change.
For a tutorial that teaches you you reset login passwords in WordPress, go here:
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.
To learn more about logging out securely in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
14 – Update Profile
Remember to click Update Profile if you change any details in your profile to update your profile settings …
Important Notes - User Profile
- WordPress only requires an e-mail address and a nickname.
- Your email address is only used for admin purposes.
- Your email address is never sent to any other site (including WordPress) and it is never shown on your website (unless you publish it, or use a theme that has been encoded to display the email address).
- Only registered users of your blog have access to the email address you have provided.
- Every email address must be unique.
In Addition …
Adding certain plugins to your site (e.g. for adding social media features), may insert or remove fields in the User Profile screen (e.g. add a Twitter username field, display additional functionality options related to the plugin, etc…)
There are various plugins that let you customize user profile fields. You can browse a number of these plugins by going to Add Plugins and searching for “user profile fields” inside your WordPress dashboard …
See Tip #3 in the “Useful Tips Related To Your User Profile” section below for an example of a free plugin that lets you hide unnecessary user profile fields.
Your Profile: Additional Contact Info
As mentioned earlier, the WordPress Profile area has a number of fields that allow you to enter extra contact information such as:
- AIM screen name
- Yahoo! Messenger ID
- Jabber / Google Talk name
Normally, most users just ignore this section. Some WordPress theme developers, however, may choose to customize their templates to display this and other contact information.
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 allows you to connect and chat with friends from any web browser or mobile device …
Jabber / Google Talk
Although this field says “Jabber / Google Talk”, clicking on the link actually takes you to Google Hangouts.
Google Hangouts is an instant messaging and video chat platform developed by Google. It replaces three messaging products that Google had implemented concurrently 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 business webinars online using Google Hangouts, then see this article we’ve written about a great plugin that lets you manage a business-level video conferencing platform on your web site with Google Hangouts:
Useful Tips Related To Your User Profile
Tip #1: Check that Show Toolbar when viewing site is enabled inside the Toolbar subsection of your Profile area …
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 of your blog posts …
After you have done this, a link to the author displaying your selected nickname gets added to every blog post published on your site …
This link takes your site visitors to the Author Archives section, where they can learn more about you (or about other authors registered as users on your site) and see all articles that you (or other authors) have published …
You can also include hyperlinks and text formatting like bold and italicized words to improve your author description and promote yourself, your services, products, other websites, etc. to your site visitors …
This can be done by pasting 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 corporate website, you can install a simple plugin called Hide User Profile Fields that automatically hides the following fields from your site’s user profiles and creation pages when activated:
- Admin Color Selector
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Admin Toolbar
- AIM
- Jabber
- Yahoo IM
- Website
- Biographical Info field
- User Role (every new user is registered as “Subscriber”)
To learn more, visit the plugin page here:
Congratulations! You have just learned how to edit your user details in WordPress.
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
Disclaimer: This site has no direct association with WordPress or any of the products discussed on this website. We may derive a financial benefit or affiliate commission from the sale of any products mentioned on this site. All product images remain the copyright of their respective owners and are being used only for training or illustrative purposes.
***
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please consider sharing this article with other blog owners using the share buttons below.
Like It? Share It:
