Category Archives: Facebook

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Fotobounce, PhotoLive

Save Facebook Albums – a new way to do it

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PhotoLive is a new way to download photo albums from Facebook. We’ve used it a few times and it still has some bugs but we thought we’d share our experiences so far. We’ve written about FotoBounce before and it works quite well. PhotoLive, however, was able to retrieve some albums that FotoBounce could not. Here’s how you can use PhotoLive.

TIP: PhotoLive did not work for us when we tried it in Internet Explorer. It worked quite well in Google Chrome but not IE. Again, your mileage may vary.

First, make sure that your bookmarks bar is showing at the top of your browser window. Each browser is different so your settings may vary. We use Chrome and this is how it’s done with it:

Photo of Chrome menu
Top right, Bookmarks then ‘Show bookmark bar’.

 

Head to the PhotoLive Site, then drag the blue bar up to your bookmarks bar. (Click once on it and hold the mouse button down, then drag it up to the bar and release the button.) PhotoLive  doesn’t ask for permissions, unlike Fotobounce. It’s a browser add-on more than a Facebook app.

Photo of PhotoLive home page
Drag the blue box up to your bookmarks bar.

 

Now  your bar should have these words on it:

Photo of Chrome Bookmarks Bar
Look for the words ‘Download Photos’.

Just remember that none of this is going to work unless you are inside your Facebook account. Head over now and log in, if you aren’t already, then go to a photo album that you want to save to your computer. When you get there, click on the Download Photos button that we just put on your booksmarks bar. This is what you’ll see next:

Photo of PhotoLive menu
Click the green button to start the download.

 

Here is where you might run into a problem. PhotoLive can’t function inside of a secure browsing environment. What does that mean? It means that if you have turned on Secure Browsing in your Facebook Privacy settings, PhotoLive won’t work.

You should always have Secure Browsing turned on, however. In this one case, you can turn it off, download the album, then turn it back on again. The error page that comes up when you click Download Photos describes how to turn Secure Browsing off. (Head to your Account Settings, click on the Security badge on the top left side then uncheck the box to the left of ‘Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) when possible’. Then click on ‘Save Changes’ and you’re done.)

Head back to the album you want, do the same steps as before to save the album and PhotoLive will show you this screen next:

Photo of PhotoLive download screen.
PhotoLive saves the albums in zip files.

 

The zip files will be saved to your normal download folder, usually Downloads. A zip file is a compressed folder. You can read how to unzip them here: How to Zip and Unzip Folders. Once you unzip the file, you can browse the images.

TIP: For some reason, PhotoLive does not download every photo in an album. We’re not sure why that is but you won’t get them all. An alternative to PhotoLive is Fotobounce, mentioned before, which will get every photo if it can get any at all. If you use a combination of both programs, you’ll probably be able to save almost any album that you come across on Facebook.

Now that you’re finished downloading the album, head back to your Facebook Security settings and turn Secure Browsing back on again.

Hopefully, this how-to is crystal clear but if it’s not, let us know. Questions, comments are always welcome.

Thanks for reading! While you’re on Facebook, why not like our page:  https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl

 

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Create a List, Facebook, Restricted Friend List

Facebook – Restricted Friend List

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Everyone has some people on Facebook who aren’t really friends. Maybe they are relatives or co-workers but, because of circumstances, you may have to have them on Facebook. Even though they are on your friend list, you probably don’t want to share everything that you post with them. Facebook has a setting for this situation. Here’s how it works.

1. Head to your timeline by clicking your profile image up on the top right of any Facebook page.

2. Click on the box that says Friends. Here’s the box:

Photo of Friend Box
Click the box.

 

3. Once your list comes up, choose any friend that you want to put on the restricted list. Hover over their name and a bigger box pops up. Like this:

Photo of Friend's Info
Don’t click for a while, just hover.

 

4. Again, hover over the word Friends. This box will appear:

Photo of Popdown on Facebook
Different settings are available from this one menu.

 

5. This person isn’t on any list right now but let’s click ‘Add to another list…’ to see what happens. Here’s the next menu:

Photo of Facebook Lists
Down at the bottom, look for Restricted.

 

6. Click on the word ‘Restricted’ and that person is now on the restricted list. Details on what that means in a minute.  For now, head back to any Facebook page and click on the little down  arrow just to the right of Home. Click on Privacy Settings. Like this:

Photo of Privacy Settings on Facebook
Let’s check our privacy settings.

 

7. What we’re doing now is checking to see who is on the restricted list. If you add a few friends to this list, it’s a good idea to check who is on it, right? Here is the page that shows up next. Click on ‘Manage blocking’ down at the bottom right.

Photo of Facebook Privacy Page
Down at the bottom, look for Manage blocking and click there.

 

8. When the blocking page appears, at the top you’ll see a section for your restricted list. There is a short description of what happens when you put a friend on this list. As far as Facebook is concerned, they are not friends since they cannot see anything that you post that is set to ‘Friends only’. However, people on this list will see anything that you post that is public. Additionally, Facebook does not notify your friends that they are on this list. Here is the photo of this menu:

Photo of Facebook Restricted Settings
Read about what the restricted list means.

 

9. Once you are here, you might as well add more friends to this list. Here’s how we do that. Click on Edit List. This box appears:

Photo of Friend on Facebook Restricted List
All of the friends who are on the list are shown here.

 

10. The people who are on the list are shown here. To remove them, click the X that appears when you hover over the person’s photo. If you want to add more people to the list, click on the words ‘On this list’ and the following choices show up:

Photo of Facebook Restricted List
Click on the word Friends.

 

11. Now you will see a page full of all of your friends. Simply click on any friend who you want to add to your Restricted list. You’ll see a check mark to signify that they are now restricted from seeing most of what you post on Facebook.

Photo of Facebook Restricted List 11
Click any profile photo here to add that person to your restricted list.

 

This is a long post, to be sure, but we feel it’s important to do everything in a step-by-step manner. If you still have questions, comment below. We’ll help you out.

 

Thanks for reading! Check out (and like) our Facebook page here: Computers Made Simple

 

 

Facebook, Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups – Not as scary as you might think

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Facebook groups can be a lot of fun, just remember that you can’t opt-out of being added to one. As we said in our last post, any of your friends can add you to a group…without your consent. As soon as you are notified of this, you can leave the group easily. Aside from that little bit of weirdness, Facebook groups serve a real purpose. Here’s everything you need to know about setting one up:

1. On the left side of your normal Facebook page, as opposed to your own timeline, look down near the bottom for the words ‘Create Group’.

Photo of Groups 1
Click on Create Group.

 

2. This menu opens up once you click on Create Group:

Photo of Groups 2
Here is where you decide what kind of group you want to create.

Read this menu carefully. Make sure you know what you’re getting into if the group is anything other than mainstream. The tip below has some points. Once you decide, make up a group name and then add at least one member. Facebook won’t let you create a group unless there is one member besides yourself. Then click Create.

TIP: As far as we can tell, even if the group is ‘Open’, there are no notifications of its presence on any non-group member’s timeline, even when a member makes a post. There is nothing to say that a person is in any group whatsoever. Right now, we don’t see the difference between the Open or Closed or Secret setting. We stand to be corrected but we think the setting has more to do with who can be added to a group, more than what notifications your friends see.

 

3. When you are adding members, simply start to type the friend’s first or last name and the drop-down menu will give you various names to choose from:

Photo of Groups 3
We typed z and still got some names to choose from.

 

4. Choose an icon for your group. This is probably handy when you’re a member of many different groups.

Photo of Groups icons
Choose an icon next.

 

5. Now you get a chance to edit your group’s settings and choose an email address for the group.

Photo of Groups 5
After the group is created, head over to ‘Edit Group Settings’

 

6. Here is where you can decide how members are added, set up a group Facebook email address and adjust posting permissions.

Photo of Groups 6
Check this menu out carefully.

 

7. Why not set up a group email address? Members can then email in messages or posts from anywhere.

Photo of Groups 7
Don’t leave spaces in the name and keep it short for convenience.

 

8. Now for the most important point. If  someone adds you to a group but you don’t want to be in the group, go to the group page and click on the word Notifications. This menu will pop down:

Photo of Groups 8
This is how you leave the group.

 

As time goes on, we’ll see if our theory on group privacy is different from what we’ve written here. As far as we know, these settings have been in place since 2010. If you can add some information about who sees what in the news feed re: groups that your friends are in, please comment below. Right now, we can’t see how anyone else knows what groups their friends are in, even if they are Open groups. If we’re wrong, let us know.

As always, thanks for reading!

Facebook, Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups – No way to opt out of them

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You may have seen in the news lately that some gay students in Texas were outed in a Facebook group, totally without their consent. This outing was not done maliciously but, seeing as how Texas is quite backward, caused these students significant grief and pain. You might think that you have a choice when it comes to Facebook groups but, unfortunately, you don’t. Anyone who is a friend of yours on Facebook can freely add you to a group. There is no way to opt-out of this, you can’t stop any of your friends from adding you to any group they start. Here’s a perfect example of what we’re talking about:

Mark Zuckerberg quits NAMBLA (yes, you read that correctly.)

 

Seeing as how you can’t opt-out of groups, there are only two ways that you can prevent being added to Facebook groups. The first is simple, check your friend list. If you have some practical jokers there, get rid of them as friends. As we’ve shown you, they can add you to any group they want and, until you quit the group, you can’t do anything about it.

The second option is virtually impossible, but if you’ve got a lot of time, maybe you can do it. Simply put, Facebook has a maximum limit of 300 groups that any one person can join. Therefore, if you start 300 groups and add yourself to them, no one will be able to add you to any group they start. Yes, it is a waste of time, for sure.

Over the next few posts, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about Facebook groups. Here’s a shot of the group privacy menu:

Photo of group privacy policies
Open, closed or secret. You decide.

 

Stay tuned. We’ll show you everything you need to know about groups…except how to opt-out. You can’t. Remember that.

Thanks for reading!