From your home page, head to the News Feed section and click the Preferences link.

Figure 5-1. 

On the page that appears, tell Facebook what you want to see more of on your news feed, and what you want to see less of. Drag the sliders up to see more event-related news, group-related news, and so on, and drag them down to see less.

To see more news about certain friends, head to the More About These Friends section in the lower-left part of the page; type in a friend’s name, and then click Add. To see less about certain friends, do the same in the lower-right Less About These Friends section. After you make each change, Facebook pops up a temporary Saved Setting message (or Restored Setting message, if you clicked Undo Last).

Figure 5-2. 

On the Facebook main menu, click Profile.

Scroll down to the Mini-Feed section of your profile and read through the stories. If you don’t see any stories listed beneath the Mini-Feed heading, click the right-arrow to expand the section.

Delete any stories you don’t want people to see. Click the X at the right end of a story snippet (and then, in the confirmation box that appears, click the Hide Story button) to delete that story from your mini-feed.

Specify which types of actions you want to reveal in your mini-feed, and which you don’t. See Preventing People from Subscribing to Your Status Updates for details.

On the Facebook main menu, click “account”.

On the page that appears, click the Notifications tab.

Figure 5-6. 

On the Email Notifications tab, turn on the Off radio box next to any activity you don’t want to hear about, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

At the top of any Facebook screen, click the down arrow next to Friends, and then choose Status Updates. The Status Updates tab appears, listing the current status of all your friends.

Figure 5-8. 

Head to the right side of the Status Updates tab and click the Friends’ Status Feed link.

Figure 5-9. 

Follow the steps in Subscribing to Your Notifications.

In the Applications menu on the left side of your screen, click Posted Items (you may have to click “more” to see the Posted Items link).

On the Posted Items page that appears, head to the “Show recently posted items by” drop-down box and choose either All Friends or the name of one of your friends.

Figure 5-10. 

Head to the right side of the Posted Items page and click either My Friends’ Posted Items (if you chose All Friends in step 2) or a link similar to “Stan Dupp’s Posted Items” (if you chose a specific friend in step 2).

Figure 5-11. 

Follow the steps in Subscribing to Your Notifications.

In the Applications menu on the left side of your screen, click Notes (you may have to click “more” to see the Notes link).

On the Notes page that appears, click the My Friends’ Notes link.

Follow the steps in Subscribing to Your Notifications.

At the top of any Facebook screen, click the down arrow next to Inbox, and then choose Notifications. Facebook displays the Notifications tab.

Scroll to the bottom of the Notifications tab and click the Your Notifications link on the right-hand side.

Follow the steps below.

No matter what kind of subscription you’re signing up for, the following steps apply. (Do them after you’ve finished the steps for the particular feed you’re subscribing to.)

In the page that appears, click “Subscribe to this feed” (or the similarly worded link that appears in your browser).

In the box that appears, choose the bookmark folder you want to put your subscription in. The feed name Facebook suggests is perfectly workable, if a little boring, so don’t feel you have to type in a new one (although you can if you want). Because you access subscriptions through your Web browser, the folder you choose from the “Create in” drop-down list (or create using the “New folder” button) appears in your Web browser’s feeds list.

Figure 5-12. 

Figure 5-13. 

Click Subscribe. Up pops a message telling you your subscription was successful. To see your subscription, you can either click the “View my feeds” link on the success message, or use your browser’s menu to see all your listed feeds. If you use Internet Explorer, for example, click the Favorites Center icon (the little star on the left side of the menu) to view your feeds.

Figure 5-14. 

Figure 5-15. 

From the Applications menu on the left side of any Facebook screen, choose Notes.

Figure 5-16. 

On the Notes page that appears, click " Write a New Note”. On the “Write a Note” page, fill in the Title field with a subject line for your note (think of it as a summary of your entry and shoot for provocative, concise, or both). In the Body field, type your note.

Figure 5-17. 

If you like, add a photo or two. To do so, click the Browse button and, in the window that appears, select the image file you want to add. Repeat this process to add additional photos.

If you want to, tag the note. Tagging is a way of associating the note with a Facebook friend (or two). If your note chronicles the office Christmas party, say, you might want to tag the office mates you mention. To tag your note, click the “Tag people in this note” field and start typing; then choose one of the names Facebook helpfully displays.

Click Preview to give your note a quick once-over. Double-check what you’ve written and check the formatting, which can get a little funky (especially if you added photos). If you see something you don’t like, click Edit to change your note. Then repeat the Preview-Edit cycle until you’re happy with the result.

Figure 5-18. 

Click Publish. Facebook lists your new note in the Notes section of your profile for all the world (technically, all your friends and fellow network members) to see and comment on, and sends notifications to the folks you tagged.

Figure 5-19. 

From the Applications menu on the left side of your screen, choose Notes. You may have to click “more” to see the Notes link.

On the Notes page that appears, click My Notes, and then click “Import a blog” on the right side of the page.

Figure 5-20. 

On the “Import a Blog” page, head to the Web URL field and type in your blog’s URL (for example,http://YourNameHere.blogspot.com). Turn on the checkbox to reassure Facebook that the blog you’re importing is yours (it needs to be; adding anything to your Facebook account that you personally haven’t created or bought rights to distribute spells copyright infringement), and then click Start Importing.

Figure 5-21. 

In the confirmation page that appears, click Confirm Import. Facebook adds the imported blog entries to your from-scratch notes with one difference: a tiny orange icon that lets people know the entries have been imported from somewhere else. If folks click the “View original post” link, they’ll jump to the blog the entry came from.

From the Applications menu, choose Notes. You may have to click “more” to see the Notes link.

On the Notes page that appears, click the My Notes link in the upper left. If you don’t see the full text of your notes, click the My Notes tab.

Figure 5-22. 

To edit your note, head to the note’s title line and click Edit Note.

To delete your note, click Delete.

From the Applications menu, choose Notes. As always, you may have to click “more” to see the Notes link.

On the Notes page that appears, click My Notes in the upper left. Then, on the My Notes tab that appears, head to the right side of the page and click “Edit notes privacy”.

Figure 5-23. 

Change who can access or add public comments to your notes. From the drop-down list in the Notes section, choose the option that best describes who you want to be able to read your notes. Then head to the Comments section and tell Facebook who you want to let comment on your notes (see the next section of this book). Finally, to prevent people from subscribing to your notes, scroll down to the Syndication section and turn on the “No one can subscribe” radio button. When you finish making changes, click Save.

From the Applications menu, choose Notes. You may have to click “more” to see the Notes link.

On the Notes page that appears, click My Notes. Make sure the My Notes tab is selected.

Scroll down to just below the note’s title and click the Edit Note link.

Figure 5-26. 

In the “Tag people in this note” field, start typing the name of the friend you want to tag. Facebook pops up names as you type; click to select one. You can tag as many of your friends as you like.

Figure 5-27. 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save.

From the Applications menu, choose Notes. You may have to click “more” to see the Notes link.

On the Notes page that appears, click “Notes about You.” All the notes your friends have tagged with your name appear.

In the Applications menu on the right side of your screen, click Notes (you may have to click “more” to see the Notes link).

On the right-hand side of the Notes page that appears, under the Notes Settings heading, click the “Edit notes privacy” link.

On the Privacy Settings for Notes page, head down to the Syndication section and turn on the “No one can subscribe” radio button.

On the Facebook main menu, click “privacy”; then, from the Privacy Overview page that appears, choose Profile.

On the “Privacy Settings for your Profile” page, turn off the checkbox next to “Allow friends to subscribe to my status updates”.

On the Facebook main menu, click “privacy”.

In the Privacy Overview page that appears, click “News Feed and Mini-Feed”. Up pops the “News Feed and Mini-Feed Privacy” page.

Figure 5-28. 

Turn off the checkboxes next to the activities you don’t want to advertise. When you’re done, click Save Changes.