Customize Your MyBB Board

After you’ve installed and secured your MyBB forum, it’s time to start making it your own. There are dozens of little things you can do to customize your MyBB message board so that posters feel welcomed and part of a community tailored to your specific interest, rather than simply posting on something using the default settings. If you’ve already installed some plugins and customized some themes, this little extra touches will take your board from ‘just starting out’ to the go-to place for your members.

• Customize Your MyBB Board with a Custom Logo
• Add Your Own Smilies

Customize Your MyBB Board with a Custom Logo

The logo of your site — in the upper left corner by default — is one of the first things you should customize to match your brand and convey the identity of your site.

1. In cPanel, go to File Manager
2. Find the site directory for your MyBB site and open the images directory
3. Click Upload
4. Select the file you wish to use from your computer
5. Go to the Administrator Control Panel for your MyBB site
6. Click on Themes
7. Click on the theme you are currently using (it will be Default if you have not added any new themes)
8. Scroll down until you find Board Logo
9. Change this entry to the file you uploaded above
10. Click Save Theme Properties at the bottom of the page
    The logo for your site will now be updated.

Add Your Own Smilies

Smilies, emoticons, emoji — whatever you call them, people love using them to post. Having smilies unique to your board, adding new ones in response to new events, and even just uploading smilies designed by others from aggregator sites is a fun way to personalize your board and keep things feeling fresh.

1. In cPanel, go to File Manager
2. Find the site directory for your MyBB site and open the images/smilies directory
3. Click Upload
4. Select the file you wish to use from your computer
5. Go to the Administrator Control Panel for your MyBB site
6. From the Admin Control Panel, click on the Configuration tab
7. Click on Smilies on the left side
8. Click the Add New Smilie tab
9. Choose a name for the smilie
10. Choose the text to replace with the smilie — note that to follow the BB Code styling usually used throughout MyBB, most smilies will begin and end with a colon, like this — :newsmilie:
11. Complete the Image Path using the name of the file you uploaded
12. By default, the display order will automatically use an unused number at the end of the list
13. Decide if you want the smilie added to the clickable menu or not, then click Save Smilie.

With a few simple additions, you’re well on your way to having a site that uniquely reflects you and your user-base.