Hi Elizabeth -

Now I have received this message and I wondered if I should follow through with their instructions to change things on my account or is this just a gimmick that might get me into trouble?

Dear Jean,

Your Facebook account was recently logged into from a computer, mobile device or other location you’ve never used before. For your protection, we’ve temporarily locked your account until you can review this activity and make sure no one is using your account without your permission.

Did you log into Facebook from a new device or an unusual location?

– If this was not you, please log into Facebook from your computer and follow the instructions provided to help you control your account information.

– If this was you, there’s no need to worry. Simply log into Facebook again to get back into your account.

Jean

Dear Jean,

I’m pretty sure this is a legitimate message from Facebook.

Did you travel to NH to see your Granddaughter graduate? If so, Facebook has just detected that you logged in from a location that is not your usual location.

If you are not sure about the message, go to your Facebook page (don’t click on the link in the email to get there) and change the password.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
Connect with Elizabeth on Google+

Dear Computer Lady,

How do you fix that? Bee

Dear Bee,

This is not a problem with Facebook that can be fixed, it is actually just a button that acts like a toggle switch.

It is kind of like your garage door opener, there is one button. When the garage door is closed, pushing the button opens the door. When the garage door is open, pushing that same button closes the door.

The “Like” button on Facebook works the same way. When you have not “liked” a post, clicking the “Like” button says that you like a post.

Once you have “Liked” a post, the same button allows you to change your mind and “unlike” a post.

I hope this helps you understand how the “Like/Unlike” button works in Facebook.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
Connect with Elizabeth on Google+

Sincerely, Bruce

Dear Bruce

You have asked a great question.

Personally, I always make sure that I log out or sign out of sites like my bank, and other financial sites.

As long as you are logging into sites like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter from your own personal computer, you should be fine. When you are logging into any site from a public computer, always make sure you log out of the site before you close the page.

I would never use a public computer to log into a bank or other financial website, you just never know what has been installed on the computer. I keylogging program would make it easy for someone to learn your username and password for any site you log into.

I don’t really think that websites are “hiding” the log out buttons, I just think that they are trying to make the features that people use the most, more visible, and the less used features are usually inside a menu.

You can sign out of Facebook by simply clicking the drop down arrow in the upper-right corner of the page, and then click, “Log Out”.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
Connect with Elizabeth on Google+

Facebook has a new feature that will allow you to do just that. Let’s take a look.

When you go to your Facebook business page, and click to create a new status update, you will notice a small clock symbol in the lower-left corner of the status update box.

When you click on that clock, nothing much happens, you will just see a little link that says, “Add Year”.

When you click on “Add Year” and select a year, you will see a link to add a month, then a date and finally a time.

Select the exact date and time you want your status to be posted, then click the “Schedule” button and Facebook will do the rest.

The same clock symbol appears when you post a status update on your personal Facebook page, but it only seems to work for dates in the past, not the future.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Thanks, Mike

Dear Mike,

If you want to write an article for your facebook page, you would simply use the “Write a Note” feature. Here is how:

1. Go to your Facebook Business page and click on “Notes”.

2. Click on the “Write A Note” button in the upper-right corner of the web page.

3. Create a title for your note, and write the article in the “Body” section. You can add tags (kind of like keywords) and photos if you wish.

4. You can preview the article before you publish it with the “Preview” button, and use either the “Edit” button to go back to writing the article, or “Publish” to publish the article.

5. When you publish the article, it is automatically posted in your timeline.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Thanks, Mike

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Dear Mike,

When Facebook changed your business page over to the new timeline, they changed the profile picture from a rectangle to a square.

Since your original picture was a rectangle that had text all the way to the edges, it didn’t translate well to the new square format.

Fortunately, it is quite easy to fix, and you don’t even need to purchase an expensive program.

There is a free program, named, Irfanview at www.irfanview.com that makes this fix a quick and easy task. If you don’t already have Irfanview installed on your computer, go ahead and download it, then we can get started.

1. Open your profile picture in Irfanview. If you don’t have a copy on your computer, you can do what I did, and go to your website, right-click on the picture, and click “Copy”.

2. If you copied the picture in the first step, open Irfanview, and click “Edit” then “Paste” in the menu bar.

3. With your logo open, click on “Image” then “Change canvas size” in the menu bar. A small dialog box will open.

4. We are going to use method 2, and set the total canvas dimensions in pixels. First, you need to know the size of the current image. If you look in the lower-left corner of the Irfanview window, you will see the dimensions of your image, which is currently 229 pixels by 159 pixels.

5. Click to select “Method 2″ and in the “Width” and “Height” boxes, type 229.

6. In the “Anchor” section, click to select “Center” so that the current image will be centered in the new, larger square.

7. In the “Canvas color” section, click the “Choose” button, and select a color. In this case, I selected white since that is the background color of your logo.

8. Now, click the “OK” button, and your image will be resized to a 229×229 pixel square that will work much better as your new facebook profile picture.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Nelva

Dear Nelva,

Actually, you both have control over who your friends are. In order to be friends with someone, both people have to want to be friends.

To become friends with someone on Facebook, you send a friend request, and the person you send it to accepts it. If that person doesn’t want to share their posts with you, then they can choose to not accept your request.

If at any time, you decide you don’t want to share your information with someone, you can remove them from your list of friends. This will not only remove their name from your list, but it will also remove your name from their list of friends.

What happened in your case is that the person who got upset with you removed you from their list of friends. As a result, they are no longer on your list.

The only way to get them back on your list is to send them another friend request and hopefully they will accept the new request.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Dear Computer Lady,

Thanks, Mary

Dear Mary,

This Facebook Status is just a hoax. In fact, if you read it carefully, you should begin to see that it just doesn’t make sense.

Here is how to make your Facebook experience as private as possible:

1. Click on your name at the top of the left column, then click on “Friends”. Scroll through the list and remove anyone who you don’t want reading your posts and comments.

2. Then, click on the arrow next to “Home” in the upper-right part of the window, and click “Privacy Settings” in the drop down list. In the section for controlling privacy, click “Friends”. Now only your friends can see your posts.

3. When you comment on someone elses post, always remember that anyone who can see that post, can also see your comments. Before you comment, look for the privacy symbol. A small globe means the post can be seen by anyone, two people means only friends of the person who posted can see it, and a gear means that the settings have been customized.

No matter how private the settings are, I believe that a good rule to follow is to never post anything on FaceBook or any other website that you wouldn’t want the whole world to read.

If you followed the directions in the hoax above, all you would be doing is blocking comments and post that your friend makes. You will not be blocking anyone else (unless you repeat the procedure for each of your friends) and you will not be blocking your comments from being seen by anyone who can see the original post you are commenting on.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Jas

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Dear Jas,

There is a way that you can remove comments that you or someone else left on your facebook page. Let’s take a look:

First, log into your facebook page.

Now, go to your wall, but clicking on your name in the upper-left corner of your page.

Your wall shows you posts that you (or someone logged into your facebook account using your username and password) have posted. It also shows anything that your friends might write directly on your wall.

As you move your mouse around on the page, you will see that as your mouse passes over each post or comment, a small letter X will appear to the right of that post. Just move your mouse over the post or comment that you want to get rid of, and click the X when it appears to delete the post or comment.

I hope this helps you clean up your grandson’s facebook page.

Elizabeth

I love getting your “Computer Lady” emails!

Pat in (Perth, Western Australia)

__–__

Dear Pat,

Here are the directions for removing a photo from your facebook page. This only works for photos that you have posted. If there are photos that someone else put on their page, you will need to ask them to take the photo down.

1. Open your web browser and log into your facebook account.
2. Click on your name, under your profile picture on the left side of the page. This will load your “Wall” page.
3. Click on “Photos” under your profile picture.
4. Click on the photo that you want to remove. It will open up with a black frame around it.
5. Scroll down so you can see the white section below the black frame. In the left column of this section, is a list of options for tagging or sharing the photo. If the photo belongs to you, the last option on this list is, “Delete This Photo”. Click on that option.
6. A dialog box will appear asking you if you are sure you want to delete the photo. Click on the “Confirm” button, and the photo will be deleted.

Elizabeth