You can use HTML anywhere on Multiply: comments, posts (click on 'Edit HTML' first if it's a blog post) and even in your Page Title. Here are the basic commands, be sure to check the links for more info.

If you don't like to use the codes but you want to use HTML somewhere, you can do this: create a blog entry and change the fonts, colors, etc, then click on 'Edit HTML' to reveal the code so you can copy it and paste wherever you want.

The Very Basic Basics

What You Type	What You Get
<B>Men</B>	Men
<I>Are</I>	Are
<U>from</U>	from
<S>Men are from Mars</S>	Men are from Mars
You can even combine tags (just remember to next each pair of tags)
<B><I><U>Mars Needs Women</U></I></B>	Mars Needs Women
And That’s Not All
<CENTER></CENTER>	Centers text or image.
<A HREF="URL HERE"></a>	Makes whatever text/image it surrounds into a link.
<IMG SRC="IMAGE URL HERE" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100" />	Add an image, using optional WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes to control the sizing. Note: IMG code is stand-alone (no separate close tag necessary).
<FONT FACE="verdana" SIZE="6" COLOR="green">Little Green Men</font>	Alter the size, style, and color of text.

Additional HTML Resources

• Hot-linking Images Inside Multiply
• JavaScript Isn't Allowed
  
• W3C
• Webmonkey
• Web Design Group

Even more tips and tutorials about HTML/CSS can be found in the group Multiply.Design. Click on the logo to join the group now!


Source: Friendster.com help page.
(info in public domain).

If you have a question on how to change your theme look and feel, Multiply.Desgin group will help to solve it.

Most people just want a theme with personalized colors and a background. It's very easy to get it using the Custom theme:

1. Click on the Customize My Site link found in your main page or go to settings -> My Site
2. Click on Choose a Theme in the top yellow bar (Image A)
3. Pick Custom Theme (Image B)
4. Choose your background picture using Browse (Image C-1)
5. Pick a color scheme or make your own using the options below (Image C-2)
6. You can Preview or Save it when it's done (Image C-3)

PS1: In the step 4 you must choose a picture in your computer (HardDisk). It will be tiled, so small images won't look good. The recommended image size in general is something around 1024x768 pixels.
PS2: A HTML color table can be found here or here.
PS3: If you later change your Custom CSS, your background pic will be gone. But you can add it back again using the proper code in the body section of your Custom CSS: before you change your Custom CSS, look at your page source code and copy the background tag with the image link, then add it to the body section when you edit the CSS code.


Update1:
After the recent changes, now you can choose the base theme used for customizing the colors: Clean (the new default theme) or Andros (the previous default theme). Also, there are checkboxes to add transparency (no background) to some sections of your page.

JavaScript (they have the script tag in the code) and iframe codes aren't allowed in Multiply for security reasons. Any other code that is simple HTML or Flash, like the ones that use the EMBED or OBJECT command, should work fine. Usually the site give you options for the code: look for the one in simple HTML (no script tags) or one that uses Flash.


As a side note, sometimes when you try to copy and paste excerpts from other web pages to yours, usually blog entries, you may get the message that 'JavaScrit/CSS isn't allowed', and you can't save your post. It happens because some of the page code was also copied and also pasted with the text. To avoid this, first paste the excerpt in a plain-text editor, like Notepad on Win or Smultron on a Mac, and then copy it again and paste on your page. You will get only the text and should be able to save your entry.


PS: JavaScript isn't the same as Java. Java widgets should work too, as they usually use the EMBED and/or OBJECT tag.


Update1:
EMBED codes that have allowscriptaccess won't work anymore (they will be disabled when added to Multiply pages) due to security reasons too. Quote from a Multiply staff member:

Feeling envy of the older users that have a Recipe or Market section but you don't? Feel no more... With the Tagged Content boxes you can do almost the same.

How does it work? Simple: it will create a new box in your main page with all the entries you have with a selected tag or tags. For example, if you want to have a Recipes section, create blog entries with the tag 'recipes' and then create a Tagged Content box to group these entries.

From the official Multiply blog:
If you use the "Boxes" homepage layout (as opposed to "Linear"), you can now create new boxes on your homepage that display content based on the tags you've given them.

That's right, in addition to the usual boxes like "Photos" and "Videos," you can now mix and match tags to your heart's content... and display your creations on your Multiply homepage. If you ever wished for a box displaying your latest posts related to, say, business, pirates and trees, this feature makes your wish come true.

To set this up, just click the familiar "Customize Site" link on your homepage, and follow this with the aptly-titled "Add Tagged Content Box" link. You'll get a pop-up that you can use to set the options for your box -- particularly what should be displayed (pick one or more tags), and how it should be displayed (box title, number of entries to display). Once you've created your box, you can manipulate it like any other content type box: drag it around, hide it, edit it... And here's the best part: you can make multiple tag boxes!


If you feel comfortable with HTML and CSS, you can even add the new boxes to the navigation menu. Just follow the instructions found in this entry from the Multiply.Design group (where you can find more info about customizing your page too):

The blog is the most versatile and user-friendly place on Multiply. If you have a recent version of the most common browsers (Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, IE) you should see a toolbar just below the item title that allows you to modify the text style and do other things in your entry. The toolbar looks like this (click to enlarge):



I will explain what the buttons labeled with numbers in the above pic do:

1. You can add a pic to your blog entry. When you click on it, it will display another window where you can choose to import a pic from your computer (upload it), use one from one of your albums (Photos entries) or from somewhere in the Internet:



After that, you should see a box where you can choose the justification: left, center or right. Click on the one you want to use and the image is added to your post.

Tip: if you add an image to the beginning of the entry and align it to the right or to the left, a thumbnail will be displayed in your homepage after you publish the entry if your Blog box is set to 'Summary' view.


2. When you click on the checkbox named 'Edit HTML' you can see the HTML code used in the entry. Then you can fine tune your entry if you want or you can add those widgets from the web, like a slideshow, a movie or even a song player. Sites like YouTube and Slide give an EMBED code that you can use at other places (Multiply does it too: click on the share link found in most posts), and you can add it to your blog entries after you click on 'Edit HTML': just find the spot you want to place it and paste the code.
Another tip: you can compose an blog entry, click on 'Edit HTML', copy the code and then paste it anywhere in Multiply, like in your other entries and replies. Think of it like an HTML editor, where you create your stuff and then get the code to paste where you don't have these handy tools.


3. The paper-clip allows you to add attachments to your blog entry. The file will be listed below the entry for downloading. Great for sharing PDF, PPT, PPS files etc. You can add up to 5 attachments to a blog entry.


The rest of the buttons in the toolbar are self-explanatory, just mouse over them and wait a bit to see what they do, like the icon to the left of the paper-clip is for adding polls to your blogs.


Hope this helps. Happy Multiplying.

After the last update (Multiply 3.0) you do most of the page editing and change the settings directly in the main page. You just have to move your mouse pointer over the section title you want to edit and click on Edit. There is no other way to change some settings. The only exceptions are the Page Layout and the Welcome Message box, that can be edited using this link:
http://multiply.com/setup/pages/content

But sometimes you enter the wrong HTML code and you can't change the setting anymore (or you might have some broken code before the update and now you can't edit your main page at all). So follow these simple tips:

- Download and install the latest Firefox if you haven't done yet. It's a free browser, more secure and stable than IE (Internet Explorer) and it's more compatible with Multiply too;

- Lately it seems that most problems are due to graphics added by to the Guestbook. If you think it's the problem, please follow the tips in this tutorial to hide the graphics or delete the offending entry:
http://multiplynewbie.multiply.com/journal/item/158/Guestbook_101
or the more advanced version:
http://usersupport.multiply.com/journal/item/131/Guestbook_FAQ

- Backup your Custom CSS (when you choose another theme you may lose the code);

- Chose another theme and try to edit the section that has the broken code. You may have to change themes a couple of times if it does not work the first time.

- If it still does not work, go to the pages below and remove any HTML code, leaving just plain text:
http://multiply.com/setup/pages/content  (Welcome Message and boxes titles)
http://Your_Username.multiply.com/edit/title (Page Title - replace Your_Username with your actual Multiply username)

- After modifying and checking for broken codes, select your preferred theme again and copy your Custom CSS back.

If you still can't edit your main page, you should contact the support staff and give them as much details as your can about what you want to do but can't.


PS: I saw the above tip the first time on Nov 16th in a group, posted by licatayag.


Update 1:
It seems that Multiply brought back some links to edit the Page Title and Welcome Message/Sections settings! If you can't edit them directly on your main page, try these links (replace Your_Username to your actual username):
http://multiply.com/setup/pages/content
http://Your_Username.multiply.com/edit/title

Update 2:
Now you don't see the Edit|Hide links on your page anymore unless you click on the Customize My Site link at the top of your page (right bellow the navigation menu, to the right). The page where you can edit some settings is still active:
http://multiply.com/setup/pages/content

Update 3:
Added info about the Guestbook.

Update 4:
If you've hidden something in your Home Page and you don't see the unhide links after you click on Customize My Site, maybe you've set your page to Linear View. Try going back to Boxes View to unhide what you want first:
http://multiply.com/setup/pages/home

Here is a great tip for adding high resolution images or any other kind of file you want to use on your pages: create a private blog entry and attach a file using the paper clip found in the toolbar when you are editing the post. You can add many files to a single blog entry, so you don't have to create a blog entry for each file you want to use. If you need another file, go back to the private blog entry, edit it and add a new attachment. The old ones will have the same URL, so don't worry, it won't break anything. The file has a 20MB size limit, what's good enough for even attaching some music you may want to embed on your pages. It also works with Flash files (.swf) and other files that can be displayed on a browser using the EMBED command.

If you don't know how to attach a file to a blog entry, please take a look at this entry on the Multiply Official blog: http://multiply.multiply.com/journal/item/105

After attaching the file and saving the post, you can right click on the download link for the attachment and get its URL, just like what you'd do for an image. Then you can use the URL to add the pic to your posts (if the attachment is a picture, of course) or embed the file on your posts, with a plus: the URL is smaller than the ones you get from images from album entries (Photo section). For instance, I've added an attachment to this post (it's a small GIF file). Its URL is:

http://images.lfom.multiply.com/attachment/0/RX0B7AoKCqgAAFYQT3Q1/banana.gif

If you've attached an image, you can add it to any post using the IMG command as explained in my previous post (http://multiplynewbie.multiply.com/journal/item/46) or even use it in your Custom CSS.

If it's not a picture, you should use the EMBED command. Here is an example for embedding a music file on your page:

<embed src="URL_To_Your_File" autostart="true" loop="true" volume="50" height="30" width="144">

and for embedding a Flash file:

<embed src="URL_To_Your_File" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="420" width="420">

You may want to adjust the values of width and height to fit your needs, and maybe remove the wmode='transparent' part if the Flash animation looks oddly on your page.

Have fun! =)

I've decided to create an article about adding pictures inside Multiply. It can used in any place here: replies/comments, group notes, personal messages, any post at all, even on blog entries if you select the View Source option so you can add your own HTML code.

First of all, you need to host the picture on the Internet, you can't use images that are stored on your own computer. There are thousands of free services that host files for hotlinking, specially images. Some of them have some restrictions, like limited bandwidth, maximum file/image size, or will store your file for a limited time then will delete it. For these reasons and as things will be easier and faster if you do it all on Multiply, you can create a private album here (so no one else will see the pics) and still use the images here or anywhere else (if it's used outside Multiply, a small watermark will be visible, so you don't have to credit Multiply for hosting the image for you). I will come to this later.

After you have uploaded your image somewhere, you need to find its URL so you can use it in your post. The URL is the unique address of the image on the Internet. You just need to right click on the image and select Properties if you are using IE or Copy Image Location if you are using Firefox (or the similar command in your preferred browser). If you chose Properties, a small window will appear, where you can select and copy the image URL. You can also select View Image so the only the picture will be show on your browser window, and you can copy the URL from the address bar.

For instance, if you go to this album:

http://multiplynewbie.multiply.com/photos/album/1

you will see that it has only one picture. What you see first is the image thumbnail, a small size picture so you see many pics of the album at once. You can use the thumbnail if you want, just get its URL, but then you will use the small image (it can be useful for creating a link, for instance). If you want the bigger one, click on the image once, and you will see the preview image, which is bigger than the thumbnail. If there is a high resolution version of the image, you will be able to click on it once again to see the full size one (you will also see a link bellow the image with the high resolution image size). The problem is that if you host your images on Multiply, it may delete the high resolution version after 6 months if no one has ordered a print of it. Normally, if you plan to add the pic to a reply or something else, you are not using a high resolution image, or maybe the image you've uploaded is small and there is no bigger version of it, so you don't need to care about it (PS: even if Multiply deletes the hi-res picture, it won't delete the preview nor the thumbnail). In this example, I will use the preview image. Its URL is:

http://images.barefootmeg.multiply.com/image/27:multiplynewbie/photos/1/400x400/1.jpg/multiplyfordummies.jpg?et=AXOfwI3dmAVRbm8AXI%2CUqw

Now, the only thing you need to do is use this command where you want to display the image:

<img src="Image_URL">

where you must replace Image_URL with the actual URL of the image you want to show, and don't forget to include both the "<" and ">" too. In this example:

<img src="http://images.barefootmeg.multiply.com/image/27:multiplynewbie/photos/1/400x400/1.jpg/multiplyfordummies.jpg?et=AXOfwI3dmAVRbm8AXI%2CUqw">

It will show the picture like this:





Some useful variations of the command:
<img src="Image_URL" border="0"> - draws no border around the picture, useful if you use it for a link
<mg src="Image_URL" align="left"> - aligns the image to the left
<img src="Image_URL" align="right"> - aligns the image to the right
<img src="Image_URL" height="300" width="400"> - sets the image width and height (you can use other values, of course, and if you use only one parameter - width or height - the other one will be automatic to keep the image proportion ratio)


OK, now about the private album... I will use the text that kindspirit wrote in a post in this very group:

Create a new photo album as you normally would, and add all the photos, Gif's or any other images to that album that you wish to hot link from.

When choosing "Who should be able to see this album?", just select "Individuals" But Do Not add any individuals to the list! None! Just leave the list blank.

After saving your album, and confirming that the album is complete, it will appear on your message board, but only you will be able to see it. No one else will see it.

Now you can go back to those images in your Private Photo Album, and hot link those images to your Multiply site or to any other site on the web.

Of course, you will be able to add more pictures to this album, so you will need to create only one. And this tip works for any picture, from any album or any picture from the internet, as link as you get its URL.

As a final note, remember that's it's not right (nor legal) to use someone's else pictures unless you ask for it first and you have the express permission to do it. It's the same when you create your own albums. And it's polite to cite and thank your source, even after you have asked to use it. Respect the copyright and play nice. ;)


Update1: in order to paste or edit the HTML code in blog entries, the 'View Source' command was replace by the 'Edit HTML' checkbox.

Update2: now you can easily grab the code to embed your pics anywhere using the share link you can find below your pics. Use the embedding code to display your pic and link it to your album. Just copy and paste the code.

There are many ways to customize your site here on Multiply. But if you're tired of the one-click customized themes that are currently available on Multiply, and you're ready to step out and try something new, then click on over to the Customized Themes group here on Multiply.

This group is a place to share themes. It is not a "how to" group. So if you have questions about how to create your own theme, you might first want to check out this thread right here in the New To Multiply group.

But if you have a redesign that you're willing to share, or if you want to come and find a refreshing new look for your site, come check out the Customized Themes group.

It is possible to have quite a lot of HTML in the text you type in multiply, but as HTML is not that easy to learn, I thought I'd tell you how I do it. I use Mozilla Firefox, I am not sure if this works with other browsers. When I have saved a photo in an album I mark with the mouse the thumbnail photo then i right-click the mouse and select "View selection source", and I can see the HTML source, Normally I only want the image and the link that it bring with it so I look for the <A href="..."> <IMG src="..."> </A> part of the html. I then also use the <TABLE> and its associated <TH>, <TR> and <TD> in order to make the layout look nicer. To see how I can make nice entries check out my top ten volcano visits image gallery, where each entry has several links to other photos taken at that location My top 10 volcano visits NewsFlash When posting new photos on multiply it is now no longer possible to right-click them to see the thumbnail and its image link, they have done this by not showing the thumbnail as a thumbnail but rather as the background while the image shown is just a nothing. To make things even more tricky multiply will have all thumbnails of the album in one image. and then using offset in that image to display each thumbnail as if it was only one image. The advantage of this approach is that it will be a bit faster to load as you do not have to load many photos but rather one and then displaying it again and again with different offset. you can still find the URL of this picture by viewing the HTML-source that is made to show the thumbnail, but it is not that easy. on the left you can see how the thumbnail of my album from the Vasa museum looks: http://images.jaaho.multiply.com/photos/album/montage/jaaho/71/1?1205917763&amp;et=qB2ruYwubEOFcDuxhejZNQ