<ul>[*]You can put color text in messages by using tags... the available tags can be found by clicking "use markup in your posts" in the line above the text box when you are writing a post or reply.

The different colors available are at the bottom of the list.

Messages can also contain true HTML so if you know how to color text using HTML tags you can get virtually any color you want using that. I think that HTML doesn't work in signatures though, only in a message itself.
[*]Can you try posting a smileycentral smiley here and maybe we can figure out what the problem is? When you try do you get a line of text instead of the image, or do you get an empty box with an "x" in it where the image should be? Or something else?
[*]You are right, your pic does need a URL to be used as an avatar. Something I have not tried, but if you load a pic into a message using the "attach file" box when you are creating a message... doing that uploads your picture to DocJohn's server and then creates a link to it in your message so that it displays. By clicking on "properties" you can find the URL that is assigned to that image, and then you might be able to use that URL to load it as an avatar in future posts.

I'm not sure if it would work, and if it does, I'm not sure if that would cause any problems for DocJohn like requiring extra server bandwidth. My guess is that it would not, but it might be a good idea to check with him before trying this.

I've been hosting a few pics for people on my webspace but with my current financial problems I've had trouble keeping up payments to my web host and don't want to risk going over my alotted bandwidth right now, or else I'd offer to do it myself. What I can do though, if you find a way to have the pic hosted, I can edit and crop it down to the right size for use as an avatar for you, you could just email me the pic and I can edit it and mail it back to you.[/list]
------------------------------------
--http://www.idexter.com