Creating an account and logging in

To make full use of Scratch, it's best to create a Scratch account. This allows you to participate in forum discussions. It also ties your projects directly to your name and allows you to save them online. Any serious Scratcher can't go without a Scratch account, so it's best to get this done early.

Engage thrusters

Click on the Join Scratch button to be presented with an application form. You choose a Scratch username. This is the name that will appear publicly on the forum and next to all your projects, so choose wisely. You will be known by that name to the rest of the Scratch community. You also need to type your secret password twice to make sure you don't make any typing errors.

Next, you are presented with some questions about your age and gender. You can answer these truthfully. They are just used for statistics by the Scratch team, so they know in general who is using their program. The most important question is your e-mail address. This is used in case you forget your password.

If you filled in everything correctly, the application will conclude with a welcome message. After that, you are automatically logged in with your new account, and a friendly welcome message is waiting for you in your Scratch mailbox.

In case you have quit the website and need to log in again, you can use the Sign In button. Here, you fill in your username and password. When logged in, the button will change to show your username and picture. If we click on the button now, some other options will appear. We can view (and change) our profile or have a look at our projects (called My Stuff). We can also change account settings, which is basically an option to change your password or e-mail address. Finally, we get the option to sign out again.

Objective complete – mini debriefing

Signing up for a Scratch account is a fairly straightforward process. It's also a necessary step if you'd like to do more than explore a bit or experiment with some one-off project that you have no interest in saving. If you come back to Scratch, sooner or later you would really like to get that Scratch account.