Understanding the Facebook Timeline - FAQ

The line that runs down the middle of your profile is called your Timeline.

Each event, update, photo or activity you do will be represented by a dot on your timeline. 

Mouse over the dot to see the associated event, if it isn't shown automatically on the page.

The closer to the top of the timeline the dot is, the more recent it is. 

Looking for things like workplace, likes, favorites and general info? The info tab may be gone, but all the information is still there. Simply click on About, just a few lines below your profile picture.

Unlike the old format which simply involved a list of updates that spread down the page - the new profile displays two columns. Each update works chronologically, just like your old profile. To see which one comes first, simply look for the dot in the middle timeline bar - the dot nearest the top is the newest update.

Although people can see old events from your timelines, it would take too long to load all the updates you've made in a given year. Updates that Facebook feels are most important - such as photo albums, births and highly commented status updates are most likely to be displayed in older timelines.

Although people can access the top posts you've made for a certain year, there are generally only about 15-20 updates that Facebook will display for that year, that it deems important. If people want to see more, they'll have to scroll back through ALL your updates back to that year. And lets face it - you could do that on the old profile. Either way, it takes a lot of time to scroll back through an active Facebook account.

Want to see certain events, comments and status updates from a certain time period? 

Simply click on Activity Log at the top right hand of your new profile. At the bottom you can view updates from any month since you joined Facebook. Luckily, your activity log is completely private.