i cut out the inside of the stamps and put them on transparent stamps so i didn’t have to spend ages erasing the background between the edges on all of them
A QUICK GUIDE TO AO3 CUSTOMIZATION FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT CODING
ft adding pink to everything and my secret to writing long comments
note: I originally posted this to twt but if that place burns in a fiery pit I spent too long on this for it to disappear, so I'm putting it here too :)
so many people know way more about this than I do, but this is a step-by-step walkthrough of the changes *I've* made, and hopefully it works as an introduction people can build from for whatever they'd like to do
There are a lot of images in this post! (click to enlarge)
to start, AO3 skins
site skins change how the AO3 website appears when logged in (even on mobile), mine is pink and blue!
I'll have my skin turned off throughout the post so the guides appear as they will for you
to create, edit, and view skins, go to the "skins" tab from the left-hand menu. you can also view public site skins from there or from the button in the preferences.
public site skins are made by other users. i would really encourage previewing and exploring them to become familiar with the possibilities (maybe you just want to use one of them and now you're done!)
to create your own skin
on the skins page, click "create site skin"
if you don't know CSS (same), use the wizard!
clicking on the "?" will give more information about each option
I only use the colours section
you'll see a link right there for hex codes
I use pink as a header colour and bue for accent but lots of people change the background colour and that looks really cool!
submit
The next step (optional!!!) is to add CSS from a public skin to your own. I use "ByLine" by Branch. this separates the tag categories and adds spacing to make them easier to read.
here is a before and after using the fic "Landslide" by @roosterbruiser as an example
to see the CSS of a skin, click the title
copy all the text below the CSS heading
in the skin creator/editor press the custom CSS option and paste all the text into the CSS box
you can have both wizard and custom CSS settings, in mine you can see the header and accent colours as well as the CSS
level up: USERSCRIPTS
userscripts are small pieces of code that modify a website. for AO3, this may involve adding shortcuts and buttons or even advanced tagging functions (computer people, I'm so sorry if this is wrong, I'm trying). I use Greasy Fork and Tampermonkey.
This is how I write long and formatted comments!
Greasy Fork is an archive of userscripts and Tampermonkey is a browser extension and userscript manager. You don't need to use these two in particular. please use your common sense when downloading anything or adding permissions to your browser.
Greasy Fork guide on installing scripts
Install Tampermonkey on Chrome
there are TONS of user scripts for AO3. This is another good opportunity to explore all the possibilities. there are lots of more complicated options I haven't explored.
scripts for AO3
i use this floaty review box
and this comment formatting
EDIT: if you use chrome you might need to turn on developer mode in your chrome extension manager - you can google "tampermonkey developer mode" and it should explain that :)
to install (once you have Tampermonkey installed):
open the script you want in Greasy Fork and press install
Tampermonkey will open, press install again
clicking the Tampermonkey extension will let you toggle scripts on and off, and opening the dashboard will let you view, edit, and delete scripts
i find i can only have a few turned on at a time before they cancel each other out, but that depends on which ones you're using and someone more savvy might be able to fix that
how to use the floaty review box - write more comments!
there will now be a "floaty review box" button at the top of the work, it will open a floating text box you can move anywhere on the page. highlighting any text and pressing the insert button will paste the text with italics into the box
anything you type in the review box will appear in your comment at the bottom of the page!
if you have also installed the comment formatting script, you'll be able to highlight any text in your comment and use the new buttons above the comment box to format it
thats all ive got! Hopefully this is a good starting point to get familiar with some of the terms and basics for skins and scripts <3
if you want some inspo for how to comment on fics i made a whole fic rec list on twitter based on comments I've left, it's here. i have a masterlist of recs there mostly for darklina/reylo and similar ships.
the tag #reading with ru has cod recs and me talking about books
snowghoul
romaincrisis
stormborns
