LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals that was first introduced in 2003. With millions of users from over 200 countries all over the globe, this is a site that business owners, employees and job hunters join to build their connections. As with any other social networking site, an impressive profile is vital as this the first thing that people see when they click on you. And it’s worth knowing that it’s possible to customize your profile’s URL and this is recommended if you are using the site a lot or seeking work.

Why customize your LinkedIn URL?

When you sign up for a LinkedIn account, there is a default URL set on your profile. It contains random letters and numbers that would be impossible for anyone but a savant to remember. The good news is that you can customize this URL and use something unique and memorable. Before going through the steps on how to do this, let’s first look at the reasons why it’s a good idea to personalize your LinkedIn URL.

• It’s easier to remember – This is one of the top reasons why you need to customize your URL. As we’ve said, the random line of letters and numbers you get on signing up can’t really be remembered. So it you want to grow your connections and find more business or job opportunities, Having a more memorable URL is a very good idea. People can access your profile easily or recommend it to others if they remember it in the first place.
• It can be used in your email signature and business cards – To increase your exposure even more, you may include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature and business cards. It would look unprofessional and, let’s face it, slightly ridiculous if you print the default URL randomly onto a card. The name of your company or your personal moniker looks much more professional.
• It’s more searchable online – LinkedIn profiles are not only searchable on the site itself. They also appear in the results when queries are made on search engines. You’ll have better chances of being found if part of your URL was searched.

How to customize the URL of your LinkedIn profile

Before customizing the URL of your LinkedIn profile, it’s best to ensure that all vital information is posted since it serves as your online resume. Think of the name that you wish to use in your URL. It must be composed of 3 to 30 numbers or letters. Special characters and spaces are not accepted.

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account.
2. Hover your mouse on “Profile”, which can be found on the top part of the screen, then click “edit profile”.
3. Look below your photo and you’ll see your profile’s URL. Click the “edit” link next to it.
4. Under “Your public profile URL” on the lower right side of the window, click the “customize your public profile URL” link.
5. Enter your preferred URL name in the field.
6. Click “Set Custom URL”.

That’s how you customize your LinkedIn URL. For instance, if you entered “SamJones”, your URL will be “http://www.linkedin.com/in/SamJones”. LinkedIn URL can only be customized up to three times within six months. If you’ve changed it three times in less than six months, you must wait for the said period to pass before you can change your URL again.

Why your business needs a Windows Phone

Are you looking for an office suite that you can access on any computer with an Internet connection? That’s what Google Docs is all about. It’s free to use and it only requires for you to have a Google account. There’s no need to save your documents on your flash drive or other storage as they are all automatically saved online. Docs also offers the basic features of the office applications used in creating spreadsheets, presentations and word documents, including the inserting and editing of images.

Inserting an image in the document

Before we look at the steps you need to take to use the editing tools, let’s first learn how to insert an image in your document. If you open a document, click insert, select image and choose the image you wish to use, you might be wondering why you don’t see any of the editing tools. That is because using this means at first you are only putting the image into the document to see how it is best placed. So you can move it around but not edit it. To insert and edit an image, follow the steps below:

1. Open the document that you’ll be working on.
2. Click “Insert” on the menu bar below the document title.
3. Click “Drawing” and the drawing window will open.
4. Select the “Image” icon, which is the last icon on top of the window.
5. Click “choose an image to upload”, select the image you wish to insert and edit, and click open.
6. Instead of being opened in the main body of the document, the image will be opened in the drawing window.

Use the tools in the drawing window to edit the image as you prefer. Once done, click on the “save and close” button on the upper right side to insert the edited image in the main body of the document. If feel that more editing is required click on the image and you’ll see an edit link. Click on this link and you’ll be taken back to the drawing window to make further revisions.

Edit the image

The icons on the top portion of the drawing window are the tools that you can use in editing your image. Let’s go through all the options starting from the left to the right.

• Actions – clicking this option gives you the option to cut, copy and paste the image, though you can also do this using the usual keyboard shortcuts. Duplicate, as the term suggests will make another copy of the image. Other options include word art, rotate and order.
• Undo – this will undo the previous action made.
• Redo – it will redo the last action performed.
• Zoom – zoom in and out the image for better viewing and editing.
• Select – use this to select a specific image or object in the drawing window.
• Line – use this to create a line anywhere in the window.
• Shape – add shapes, arrows, callouts or expressions in the image or document.
• Text Box – use this to enter a text within the image or window.
• Image – as you may already know, it’s used to insert an image in the drawing window.
• Line Color – when an image is selected, you will get this option, including line weight, line dash, crop image and mask image. Select the color of your image’s border using this option.
• Line Weight – choose how thick the border or line will be with this tool.
• Line Dash – select your preferred line style with this option.
• Crop Image – select only a specific part of the image and remove the remaining parts by cropping.
• Mask Image – click the drop down arrow next to the crop image icon and you’ll get several shapes to choose from. The image will follow the outline of the figure you’ve chosen.

The editing and drawing tools that come with Google Docs offers huge convenience as basic image editing can be done within the application itself, without the need for a third party editing program.

Published on 13th March 2014 by Jeanne DeWitt.