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DRAFT: this page is a work in progress. Please [:Feedback:seek further help] or check the [:TitleIndex:wiki index] for a complete page on this topic.

Overview

The first step to using Launchpad is to create your own user account. With your new Launchpad account, you'll be able to:

• show other people what work you do in Launchpad and earn karma
• join thousands of teams working on free software
• file, comment on, triage and solve bugs
• host and monitor code in Bazaar branches or CVS and Subversion repostiories
• help translate software
• contribute ideas and specifications to free software projects, then track their progress
• ask for and offer help with free software
• build and host Ubuntu packages
• register your own project and make its binaries available for download.

Of course, you can pick and choose which parts of Launchpad interest you.

Note: Creating your Launchpad account should take no more than five minutes.

Creating an account

Step 1: Visit https://launchpad.net/+login and enter your email address in the Not registered yet? section, then click Register. Launchpad will now send you a confirmation email.

Note: If you don't receive the email within a few minutes it may have been incorrectly trapped by a spam filter. If you think this has happened, try registering using a [http://mail.google.com/ Gmail] or [http://mail.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Mail] address. You can always change your registered email address later on. If that still doesn't work, [Feedback let us know].

Step 2: In the body of the confirmation email is a link. Follow it to complete your registration.

Step 3: On the Complete your registration page, use the Display name text-box to enter the name that you want other Launchpad users to know you by. Many people choose to enter their real name here.

For example: Terry Nutkins.

Step 4: One of the great things about Launchpad is that it makes it easy to get in touch with other people working on free software. Your Launchpad profile will show other Launchpad users your registered email addresses. Don't worry, only logged-in users can see your email addresses, making it highly unlikely that search engine spiders and spam bots could harvest your details. If you'd rather no one saw your email address, tick the Hide my email addresses from other Launchpad users check-box.

Step 5: Enter then confirm the password you want to use with your Launchpad account. When you're done, click Continue.

Next up, let's tell other Launchpad users a bit about yourself.

Your profile page

Finding your Launchpad profile is easy. Either click your name in the top-right of any Launchpad page or visit https://launchpad.net/people/+me

Using /people/+me comes in handy quite a bit. It's a quick way to jump to your page in a particular Launchpad context but we'll have more on that later.

Editing your basic information

When you first create your account, your profile looks pretty bare. You can add information about yourself straight away. Once you start to use Launchpad, your profile will also automatically tell people about the sort of work you do in Launchpad.

Click Change details at the top of the Actions menu. The Actions menu changes depending on what part of Launchpad you're using but is always on the left of the page.

Here you can change the most basic details about your account. You've already chosen your display name - i.e. the name other people will see next to work you do - but Launchpad has also automatically generated a system username for you.

Your Launchpad name

Launchpad refers to this as your name and it's mostly used in URLs. If you're an Ubuntu member, it also forms part of your Ubuntu.com email address in the format name@ubuntu.com.

For example: Matthew Revell works on the Launchpad team. His display name is Matthew Revell but his Launchpad name is matthew.revell. His Launchpad home page is https://launchpad.net/~matthew.revell and his Ubuntu email address is matthew.revell@ubuntu.com

If you're unhappy with your automatically generated Launchpad name, now's a good time to change it. Changing it once you've started using Launchpad in full may be awkward as it will also change the URLs used to access some of your work.

Your timezone

Tell Launchpad which timezone you live to help other people know when you're likely to be available.

Next step

Now that you've got your Launchpad account set up, let's look at how you can help others to visually identify the work you do. By uploading a photo - or any other image you choose - you can stamp your identity on your profile page and elsewhere.

Read on for more about [:Branding:branding in Launchpad].