Showing Your Personality With Display Images

Selecting Your Display Image Working With Your Avatar Sharing Your Display Image Changing the Display Image Size

Working With Your Avatar

An avatar is a graphical character that you can personalise and share with your contacts during instant messaging and display next to your name in their Messenger List. You can customise your avatar by changing its clothes, hair, skin colour, background, and more to fit your mood and personality on any given day.

Tip: You can’t share avatars with Windows Live™ Messenger contacts.

This task shows you how to:


 

Here’s How

To customise your avatar:

  1. Begin customising your avatar in one of the following ways:

    • In the Messenger window, select My Display Image from the Messenger menu, then click the Customise button in the Share my Avatar section of the Display Image window.

      Click the Customise button.

    • In the status area of your Messenger window, click the picture next to your name, and then select Customise My Yahoo! Avatar from the menu.

      Select Customise My Yahoo! Avatar from the menu.

    The Yahoo! Avatar web page opens.

  2. Customise your avatar by changing its clothes, hair, skin colour, background, and more.

  3. Save your changes before closing the browser window.

    If you share your avatar, all of your open IM windows update immediately to display your new image.

    Tip: Your contacts must enable display images to see your avatar.

 

To enable avatars on your Messenger List:

  1. Open the Messenger Preferences window by selecting Preferences from the Messenger menu in your Messenger window or from the Conversation menu in your IM window.

  2. On the left side of the window, select the Display Image category.

  3. On the right side of the window, under Display Image Options, check Enable display images, and then check Show other people’s display images on my Messenger List.

    Check Show other people's Yahoo! Avatars on my Messenger List.

  4. Click the OK button.

 

What’s Next

After you create your avatar or select a picture, you can share it with contacts during IM conversations.

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Words to Know

  • Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email message or other communication.
  • Conversation: an exchange of instant messages between you and a contact.
  • Display image: a picture or avatar that represents you in some way and that you share with your contacts during IM conversations.
  • IM: the acronym for "instant message".
  • Instant messaging: the ability to exchange messages in real time with other people over the Internet.
  • Messenger List: a list of coworkers, friends, family, and associates who also use Messenger.
  • Windows Live™ Messenger: Microsoft® Windows’ free instant messaging application.