Every blog post ends with an author byline — a small round picture, your name, and your bio. This article explains how to set that picture and how to fill in the name and bio that appear next to it.
Setting your profile picture
- Go to Users → Profile (or Users → All Users and click a user, if you are editing someone else’s).
- Scroll to the Soames Profile Picture section near the bottom of the page.
- Click Select picture. The media library opens — upload a new image or pick an existing one, then click Use this image.
- Click Update Profile at the bottom of the page. The picture is not saved until you do this.
To change the picture later, use Change picture; to go back to the default, click Remove. Either way, click Update Profile afterwards.
Choosing a good image
- Use a square image. It is displayed as a small circle, so a square photo crops predictably. A tall or wide photo gets cropped to its centre.
- 300×300 pixels or larger is plenty. The site automatically uses a 150×150 version, so there is no benefit to uploading anything huge.
- Keep your face centred. The image is only about 56 pixels wide on the page, so tight framing reads much better than a full-body shot.
Why there is a second, greyed-out Profile Picture
Further up the same profile page, WordPress shows its own Profile Picture row with a generic image and a link reading “You can change your profile picture on Gravatar”. That is built into WordPress and cannot be changed here — WordPress itself has no upload button, and it pulls that image from an external service called Gravatar based on your email address.
Ignore it. The Soames Profile Picture section overrides it everywhere: on the website byline, in the WordPress admin, and in comments. You do not need a Gravatar account.
The name and bio next to your picture
The byline reads “Written by Your Name your bio.” Both parts come from your profile, on the same Users → Profile page:
- The name is your Display name publicly as setting, not your first name. It is a dropdown, and the options come from the first name, last name, and nickname fields above it — so to show “Jane Doe” you must first fill in both First Name and Last Name, click Update Profile, and then pick the combined option from the dropdown.
- The bio is the Biographical Info box. It follows your name in the same sentence, so write it to continue that sentence — for example “writes about headless WordPress.” rather than a standalone paragraph. Leave it empty and the byline is just your name.
Seeing your changes on the website
The public site is rebuilt from WordPress rather than served from it, so profile changes do not appear immediately. Publishing a post triggers a rebuild automatically, but editing your profile does not.
To push a profile change live, go to Soames → Settings and click Deploy now. The site takes about a minute to rebuild.
Troubleshooting
- The picture is not on the website. Most likely the site has not rebuilt yet — use Deploy now as above. Also confirm you clicked Update Profile after picking the image.
- A red warning appears saying avatars are turned off. Profile pictures are disabled for the whole site. Go to Settings → Discussion and tick Show Avatars, otherwise no byline picture appears for anyone.
- The byline shows the wrong name. Change Display name publicly as, not First Name. If the name you want is not in the dropdown, fill in the first/last name or nickname fields first and save.
- The picture looks squashed or oddly cropped. Upload a square version — non-square images are cropped to the centre to fit the circle.