Facebook is becoming such a huge, complicated website that it's really easy for knowledge about certain things you can do with the site to pass you by completely. Only recently, I realised that photos on your timeline can be repositioned. Until then, I'd thought you were just stuck with the automatic positioning. It seems that these tools can be sitting right under your nose and yet you won't necessarily notice it until you stop thinking it's impossible to change and start looking for a way to do it.

Another great tool Facebook has given all of us is life events, yet hardly anyone makes good use of them yet. It can be very interesting for friends and colleagues who are browsing your timeline to see when you were travelling, when you finished your studies, and when you did other random things like quitting smoking, submitted an important paper or did something else worthy of note. How well does your timeline tell your life story?

Exploring Facebook Life Events

Almost all Facebook users have seen the occasional life event, though most have never thought to try them out for themselves. They can be a bit of fun though, so it's worth knowing what you can do with them.

To add a life event, head to the status update box at the top of your own timeline. You'll see that the last of the options alongside "Status", "Photo" and "Place" is "Life Event". Once clicked, you'll be given a choice of five different types of life event:

  • Work & Education
  • Family & Relationships
  • Home & Living
  • Health & Wellness
  • Travel & Experiences

Each of these options have a number of different life events you can note, for instance starting a new eating habit, buying a house, expecting a baby, learning a new language or getting a new room-mate. Once you start exploring the options, you realise that by adding this information you'll give your Facebook friends a much more rounded picture of your life so far. Anyone scrolling through your old timeline posts will easily be able to put events into perspective given the life events that meant the most to you at the time.

Each type of life event warrants different sorts of information to be added, but most will ask you for a detailed time frame, a place location, to tag anyone else who shares this life event with you and to add photos to the event. Don't forget to limit the life event post to just the people you trust with this information, as the default privacy for life events is public, despite your default settings.

Repositioning Photos In Your Timeline

Most Facebook users know that when you upload or get tagged in photos you can remove the tag or take it off your timeline in order to obscure it a little. But when a picture you like shows up on your timeline so badly positioned that you are missing your head, few people realise that you can reposition the photo to make things right.

It's actually incredibly simple to move the picture. Head to the pencil icon in the top right of the photo's timeline entry and you should see the option to "Reposition Photo". This will let you move the picture around until you're happy with the part that shows on your timeline. You're not actually cropping the picture or in any way editing it, so don't worry about that. All it does is change what people see on your timeline.

More Reading

For more timeline tweaks, read these articles:

So, with these tips, your timeline is probably starting to look a lot more interesting. What's your favourite life event to see on someone's timeline?