What is Facebook? Facebook is the latest fad in social networking. Or put another way, the best thing on the internet for finding and communicating with old, and new, friends. Once you have created your free facebook account you can then upload and share videos and photos of yourself, friends, family, holidays and so on. You can also chit-chat via a messenger, view others profile (name, age, place of birth, etc) and post comments on their wall (public area where their videos, photos, comments, opinions and so on can be viewed).

Don't worry if you are thinking "I don't want everyone viewing my photos" for example because you can make them private - you can set up facebook to only allow friends to view your video and photo albums. Saying this, you have to realise that facebook is meant to be an "out in the open", sharable content, kind of happening. Hence why it is called Social Networking. So don't be anti-social!....show everyone what you are like! but also remember the Boss could be viewing your profile!

To get started take your web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome) to the facebook website (www.facebook.com), fill in the application form and then click on the SIGN UP button to continue.

If you do not want everyone knowing your Date Of Birth you can either lie about it and enter a fake one or you can put your proper date of birth now and then hide it, or even change it, later. The advantage of putting your correct date of birth is that people who are trying to find you via your date of birth will have an easier time of identifying you (when you have not uploaded a photo of yourself for example) whereas the disadvantage is you might attract Stalker, Pervs and other Wierdos - Well let's not pretend the world is perfect.

Fig 1.0  Take your web browser to www.facebook.com, fill in the application form and then click on the SIGN UP button to continue

After clicking on the SIGN UP button you are then asked to confirm you are human, as opposed to a spamming/junk mailing computer, by physically entering two words inside a CAPTCHA edit box. If you cannot make out what those two words are simply click on the TRY DIFFERENT WORDS... link (above the edit box, to the right). When you think you have entered the correct two words click on the SIGN UP button, where you will hopefully see the next window of the facebook account set up process (Fig 1.2 below).

Fig 1.1  Type the two words into the CAPTCHA edit box before clicking on the SIGN UP button




Fig 1.2  Click on the SKIP THIS STEP link to continue

If all went well with the CAPTCHA edit box you should be sent to the next part of the facebook account set up process (Fig 1.2 above), which consists of three short steps that you can ignore for now simply because you can enter their details later; once your facebook account has been set up. The emphasis here is to get the account set up first, so skip the above step and the following two steps by clicking on their respective SKIP links.

Fig 1.3  Click on the SKIP link to continue




Fig 1.4  Click on the SKIP link to continue

With the above three steps skipped over the next part of the set up process takes you to your facebook account page, but before you can fully use it you must verify your e-mail address by going into your e-mail account and clicking on the facebook e-mail titled: Just one more step to get started on Facebook. Simply click on its COMPLETE SIGN-UP link (Fig 1.6 below) to continue.

Fig 1.5  Welcome to your, inactive, facebook account!.....verify your e-mail address so that you can fully use your facebook account.




Fig 1.6  Click on the COMPLETE SIGN-UP link to fully activate your free facebook account

After clicking on the e-mail's COMPLETE SIGN-UP link a new facebook page (browser web page) will open whereby it will be displaying your now fully activated facebook account. From this point onwards you will be allowed to upload videos and photos and so on without the restrictions of an inactive facebook account.

One of the first things you might want to do with your facebook account, besides wanting to upload a video or photo (exampled below), is to edit your profile and its photo; in which case you need to click on the EDIT MY PROFILE link in the top-left corner of the page.

Fig 2.0  Click on the EDIT MY PROFILE link (top-left corner of the page) to continue

The profile page is actually broken up into sub-pages (categorized pages) with the Basic Information page being the first page, Profile Picture being the second page and so on. Look down the left-side column for links to the other pages - Click on a link to edit its profile information.

Fig 2.1  Fill in the main profile page and then click on the SAVE CHANGES button to continue

One thing worth noting above; If you do not want anyone to know your Birthday you can select the DON'T SHOW MY BIRTHDAY IN MY PROFILE option from the drop-down menu towards the mid-right section, like I did. And if you do not want anyone to know your Gender, for whatever reason(s), you can untick the checkbox above the drop-down menu. When you are happy with your profile settings click on the SAVE CHANGES button to apply those settings/changes.

Fig 2.2  Click on the BROWSE button or TAKE A PICTURE button to upload a picture

To upload a picture for your profile click on the PROFILE PICTURE link, inside the left column, and then click on the BROWSE button (Fig 2.2 above). This will allow you to upload a photo from your computer, flash drive, cd or whatever into your facebook account. You can also take a picture of yourself using a webcam, by looking into that webcam whilst clicking on the TAKE A PICTURE button, but in this example I am going to upload my picture using the BROWSE button.

Clicking on the BROWSE button brings up the CHOOSE FILE TO UPLOAD File Requester that allows you to browse (search) your computer (or flash drive or cd for example) for a picture. In this example I have browsed to my computer's PICTURES folder, selected (left clicked on) the picture called john.jpg and then clicked on the OPEN button. Doing so then uploaded that selected picture to my facebook account (Fig 2.4 below).

Fig 2.3  Select a picture and then click on the OPEN button to continue




Fig 2.4  My picture has been uploaded from my computer's PICTURES folder into my facebook account

Once your desired profile picture has been uploaded you can edit its thumbnail (icon sized preview picture) by clicking on the EDIT THUMBNAIL link (Fig 2.4 above) located just below your newly uploaded profile picture. The main reason for wanting to edit your profile picture's thumbnail is so that you can get your Hair and Chin into the thumbnail for example.

Fig 2.5  DRAG that head around!! until it fits nicely as a thumbnail and then click on the SAVE button to continue

That's it for this section. In the next two sections I will show you how to upload video, create a photo album, change some more settings and find friends.

Remember to always sign (log) out of your facebook account when you no longer need to use it, especially if you are in an Internet Cafe for example; where nosey, evil, people can lurk to do nasty things to your still signed (logged) in facebook account.

Fig 3.0  ALWAYS SIGN OUT of your facebook account - Nosey, Evil, People might take advantage of your signed in facebook account

If you close your web browser without signing out, when you come to sign in again (i.e. go to www.facebook.com) you might be surprised to learn you might already be signed in from a previous session. So always sign out by clicking on the ACCOUNT drop-down menu and select LOG OUT (Fig 3.0 above).

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.