How to Use the Facebook Share Menu

By Carolyn Abram from Facebook For Dummies, 4th Edition

Your Facebook timeline shows boxes that represent events that you share with your Facebook friends. Facebook is all about sharing. The Share menu, also known as the Publisher, is the text field just below your cover photo and at-a-glance info that says “What’s on your mind?”.

The Share menu is what you use to post statuses, photos, check-ins, links, and so on to your timeline:

Status: The most common type of post that you see people make from the Share menu is a basic text update that answers the question, “What’s on your mind?”. Status updates are quick, short, and completely open to interpretation..
Photo: Facebook is actually the Internet’s number one photo-sharing website. In other words, people love to share photos, and they post a lot of them on Facebook.
Place: The third type of post that Facebook gives you a special tab for within the Share menu is a location check-in. Typically, check-ins are part of another post, like a status, but if all you want to do is note where you are, click Place and start typing the name of your location. You can also add tags or a comment to your check-in. Click Post when you’re done.
Sharing past events: Although it’s not required, you may feel an urge to fill out the gaps in your timeline. If you’re new to Facebook, you may want to expand your timeline back past the day you joined. Facebook offers several ways for you to mark different points in time when something happened.

First of all, when you’re posting a status, photo, or check-in, you can click the clock icon to select a date for that post other than right now. Clicking this icon expands a date selector, starting with a year. You can then post your update to the right date.

Second, across the top of the share menu are several categories of “life events” that you might want to include on your timeline. These include Work and Education, Family and Relationships, Living, Health and Wellness, and Milestones and Experiencing. Clicking any of these reveals a menu of specific options:
- Work and Education: Specific milestones include Add a Job, Retired, Studied Abroad, Graduated, Volunteer Work, Military Service, Other.
- Family and Relationships: Add a Relationship, Got Engaged, Got Married, Add a Child, Add a Pet, Ended Relationship, Lost a Loved One, Other Life Event.
- Living: Moved, Bought a Home, Home Improvement, Add a Roommate, Add a Vehicle, Other Life Event.
- Health and Wellness: Changed Eating Habits, Lost Weight, Got Glasses or Contacts, Broke a Bone, Had Surgery, Diagnosed with an Illness, Overcame an Illness, Other Life Event.
- Milestones and Experiences: Add a Hobby, Learned an Instrument, Learned a Language, Got a Piercing or Tattoo, Got a License, Traveled, Achievement or Award, First Word, Kiss, or Other, Add a Sport, Other Life Event.

All of these events can be added to any point on your timeline; when you select it you’ll be asked to provide more details. For example, if you choose to add that you moved, a pop-up window appears, asking you for more information. You can include details about when and where you moved, who you moved with, and even include a photo of the move. Click Save when you are done and you will be taken to the post in your timeline.

As you scroll down through your history, you may realize that you want to add an event or milestone. Don’t worry about scrolling back up to the top of the page. A white bar should be following you as you scroll down, showing your name and the year you’re looking at. Click the + button on the right side of this bar to reveal all of the usual share menu options. You can also hover your mouse over the thin blue line and click to add a milestone or post there.