Hi AA2A folk,  here's some advice on correcting the ordering in your 'Skills' & 'Influences' etc

So, if your list appears backwards, here's what should work (although it may vary in different browsers).Go into 'Edit'.... don't alter anything (even though they are in the reverse order) 'Save' again and they are then shown correctly.  

This quirk is because in social networking sites, fields are often designed to show the most recent update first - but, obviously when you want a fixed order, this causes conflict. 

The alternative to this would be separating the items with a hyphen instead of a comma e.g 'art - ceramics - design'.  

 Unfortunately the only thing we haven’t worked out is what to do if you get stuck with an unwanted capital letter!

 Hope this helps

Wendy

If you want to put images in your blog rather than create an image album, here are a few tips.

• First the image must exist on a website somewhere so you can link to it.  You could upload to an image album on this site first (that way it will appear on the home page as well)
• Make a note of the 'url' of the image (not the webpage). You can find this by hovering over the image or right clicking with your mouse to get to a menu with something like 'Copy image address' 
• Write your blog and when you want to include your image move your cursor to where you want it to appear and click on the colour icon of a tree in the bar at the top of the window and a small 'Dialogue' box appears
• Put the 'url' in as requested and select INSERT to 'embed' your image in the blog.  You may not see anything appear until you select Publish (on the left of the page).
• If you want to play about with the settings in the Dialogue box, eg.to choose the size of image and where it appears in the blog, you can keep the 'Access' setting as Private to start with ie. Publish your first try, then go into the Edit function until you're happy with the result and then change to Public ....Good luck and let us know if this helps.

Hi new AA2A artists, Its great to see that mugshots and profiles are already appearing in our first 24 hours of registration. If you need a little help with what to do next, have a look at our 8 minute video tutorial which we've made to take you through the basics of setting up your page, passwords, changing your settings etc  http://www.aa2a.org/artists_menu/training

We really hope you enjoy your AA2A scheme and are able to make the most of the opportunity and this networking website

Wendy and Georgia (the AA2A Team)

If you want to apply for an AA2A placement, there still are a few application deadlines left.  University of Sunderland (Fri.28th) and you still have the weekend (deadline 30th) to put an application together for Gloucestershire College, Chelmsford College, Yorkshire Coast College, Harrogate School of Arts (applications through Hull), Hull School of Art and Design (including their first placement for a Musician).  Hereford College of Arts deadline is on 1st October.

Here goes... a 5 point guide to replacing your webpage 'grey head'

First find an image (preferably a JPG) you want to use then Sign in with your username and password  (username is the last bit of the web address for your page and is usually based on your first name. You can also get a new password sent to your email if you've forgotten it)

1.  Click on 'MY PROFILE'  (to the right of Twitter, Facebook logos)

2. Click on 'EDIT PROFILE'  (to the right of your name)

3. Click on 'EDIT PROFILE ICON'  (on the left in blue)

4. Click on 'CHOOSE FILE', find your file/image in the menu & click 'Choose'

5. Click 'UPLOAD'

The rest is optional (eg. dragging a square across the image to make the small icon how you want it)

GOOD LUCK and thankyou for uploading Dotbiz!

Welcome to AA2A and to our networking site 'Dotbiz'.

As a few of you are already uploading images (thanks for that) we thought we'd include a few notes on uploading and editing albums.  Do let us know if you ever get stuck.  We're here to help.

Create an image album

1. Select ‘Create new album’ from side menu:

2.  ‘Add image album’, enter a Title, Description, etc. (You can also edit ‘access’ – to control who can see the album).

3.  ‘Save’ and you’ve now created the folder that the images will go in.

4.  Add images to album, ‘browse’ and select the images you want  (must be under 1mb and a .jpg .png .gif) select the image/s ‘upload’ and when you’ve finished - ‘Save’

5.  Edit image properties - add individual title, caption, tags - Also you need to select one of your images as the image album cover, finally ‘save’

To make changes to an existing album

1. Go to 'Your image albums'

2. click on the album

3.  You can then choose to ‘add images to album’, ‘edit album’ (where you can change 'access' to 'Public', 'Private', 'Logged in Users') or ‘delete album’

Hi All

Georgia has been so busy this week, I thought I'd do the weekly blog for a change.

It's been a really busy few months.  We set up AA2A as an organisation in its own right in September to try and secure the future of the project, so we're now a 'Not for Profit Social Enterprise' called AA2A Ltd (previously our funding has been routed through various host organisations).  We've had our hands full doing all the stuff that goes along with being a responsible new organisation eg. a new business plan, applications to Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (they said No!) and the Arts Council (awaiting a decision), and we are currently working on a potential sponsorship deal with a major store.  It's hard work!  Its great to have a browse of this site every few days to remind myself why we're spending so much time trying to get the funding sorted out.... the work you're producing and the blogs you write really are my inspiration.

There's not much time left of this year's schemes now, so do make best use of the next few weeks and keep in touch with us as we have plans to have a more active membership scheme for ex-AA2A artists.  All for now.  Wendy

Hi AA2A folk

Thank you for putting your images and mugshots up. I appreciate your comittment to this aspect of the AA2A project.  You may have noticed there are a few shortcomings with the way the site works, (such as images coming up in the reverse order).  This happens because we adapted free 'open source' social networking software rather than pay four times the price for a purpose built one.  We really do try to save all our funds for creating more AA2A schemes!  

Don't forget that Georgia has written some useful help blogs about uploading which include troubleshooting tips.  But do let us know if you're struggling as we can usually help and are currently developing help screens which we hope will be a bit clearer than explaining the process in text.

If you don't have any experience of uploading to websites or don't have your own computer you can ask your College's AA2A Administrator to help.  They have your details from your application form, which should allow them to upload your page for you.

All for now and I really hope you enjoy your AA2A experience

Wendy AA2A National Administrator