How To Edit Your WordPress User Profile

In this tutorial you will learn how to edit your WordPress user profile.

You will also learn how to set up an “about the author” information box that will be associated with all the content you post online and how to use this feature to better promote yourself and/or your business online.

The Profile section lets you specify how your name will be displayed on your site, your e-mail address for administrative purposes, and other personal information and personal options related to your WordPress user account.

Watch the short video below and then complete the step-by-step tutorial to learn more about editing WordPress user profiles …

To edit your user profile, go to the Profile screen, which is accessible from the main navigation menu by going to Users > Your Profile …

Or by clicking on the “Howdy, Your Name” link at the top of your WordPress admin section and selecting “Edit My Profile” …

The Profile section contains a number of subsections that allow you to manage information about your user account:

Personal Options
Name
Contact Info
About Yourself
Change Password

Let’s go through each of these options now …

User Profile Fields

You can always access your profile by clicking on your username, which is displayed in the top right hand side of the screen and selecting “Edit My Profile” from the drop-down menu
You can ignore this section, unless you specifically want to customize aspects of your WordPress site administration area that are only viewable to you (and no one else) such as disabling the visual editor when writing, changing the admin area’s colour scheme, or enabling keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.
Tip: If you ever experience issues when trying to add code to your posts or pages (e.g. HTML), try disabling the visual editor button in this section
Important: Leave the “Show Toolbar when viewing site” checkbox enabled to display the Toolbar in your WordPress administration area. To learn more about the WordPress toolbar, see this tutorial: Your WordPress Site Administration Area
The username cannot be changed in the User Profile section by anyone, including the site administrator (although you can change your username if you know how to edit your WordPress database, but this will affect your login, as this username is required for logging into your WordPress site!). You can, however, change the data in the First Name and Last Name fields.
If you want to display a different author name on your posts other than the one you originally registered or installed WordPress with, then change the Nickname (required) field and select your new nickname from the Display name publicly as drop down menu. You can add multiple nicknames. All your posts, comments will display your new nickname, instead of the name you registered with.
Tip: Go here for a step-by-step tutorial on How To Change The Author Name On Existing WordPress Posts.
Make sure that your correct email address is entered in the Email (required) field.
Enter your website address in the Website field. If you have another website or business blog that you want to display as your website, then enter the URL for that website or blog instead. You can enter details for the other Contact Info section fields, or just ignore these.
In this section, add a personal or business description for your visitors and blog readers.
Use the New Password section only if you are required to change your login password. You will need to enter your new password twice before the system can accept the password change.
Click the Update Profile button to save any changes you make to your user profile.

Note: Adding certain plugins to your site (e.g. social media features), may insert or remove fields in your User Profile screen (e.g. add a field for “twitter” username, etc…)

User Profile: Important Notes

WordPress only requires your e-mail address and a nickname. Your email address is used only for your blog administration.
Your email address is never sent to any other site (including WordPress) and it is never displayed on your site (unless you publish it, or use a specific WordPress theme that displays your email address).
Only registered users of your blog have access to the e-mail address you provide.
Each user’s email address must be unique.

WordPress User Profile: Additional Contact Information

Your WordPress Profile section has a number of fields that allow you to enter additional contact information such as your AIM screen name, your Yahoo! Messenger ID, and your Jabber / Google Talk name …

Normally, you would just leave these fields empty. Some WordPress theme developers, however, may choose to customize their templates to display this and other contact information.

If this is the case, then you can choose to set up accounts with these services (if you haven’t already done so) and then add your details into the appropriate fields in the Contact Info section.

Currently, WordPress provides default fields for the following services:

AIM

AIM is a desktop and mobile chat application that allows you to chat with friends or collaborate on a group project online …

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger allows you to connect and chat with friends from any web browser or mobile device …

Jabber / Google Talk

Google Chat software allows you to chat with friends and share files online …

Note: If you plan to run a corporate website, you may not want some of the Profile screen fields displayed to users. If this is the case, see the “tips” section below to learn how to remove unnecessary fields from the User Profile screen.

Useful Tips Related To Your User Profile

Tip #1: Your user profile gives you an additional opportunity to promote your business to your site visitors.

A link to the author is added to every post published on your site …

Clicking on the author link takes you to the Author Archives section, where site readers can learn more about you (or other authors registered as users on your site) and see other posts that you (or other authors) have published …

You can add hyperlinks and simple text formatting like bold and italicized text to enhance your author description and further promote yourself, your services, products, other websites, to your site visitors …

This is done by adding HTML formatted content into the About Yourself > Biographical Info field in your Profile section …

Tip #2 (Advanced User): How To Hide User Profile Fields

If you plan to run a corporate website, you can install a simple WordPress plugin called Hide User Profile Fields that will automatically hide the following fields from your site’s user profiles and creation pages when activated: