Using the Events Application on Facebook

By Carolyn Abram from Facebook For Dummies, 4th Edition

Events is an application built by Facebook. To access its dashboard, click Events in the left menu of your Home page (currently it’s right below Messages and right above Find Friends). This brings you to the Events page and opens up additional menu options for Events. The Events page displays all upcoming birthdays and Facebook Events that have you on their guest lists. This includes Events you were invited to and Events you joined.

To see more information about an Event, click its title to view the Event’s Home page, which contains a detailed overview of the Event. Facebook also embeds a summary of the most important information, such as the Event’s date and time, who invited you, and how many people are attending.

An Event is represented on Facebook through its Home page. A Home page evolves throughout the life cycle of an Event. Before the Event takes place, its Home page serves as an invitation and offers critical information for attendees, such as the Event’s date and location. An Event’s Home page also tracks who will or might attend the Event so that its host can plan accordingly.

An Event’s Home page is divided into two columns. The skinny column on the left is where the Event Profile picture lives, as well as information about who is and is not attending. The main column in the center of the page displays all the relevant Event information and the Event Wall and it contains the following information:

Event Name: It’s big and at the top of the page in black.
Inviter (pre-RSVP): Before you RSVP, you see the name of the person who invited you to the Event right below the Event’s name.
Share (pre-RSVP): The Share link scattered throughout Facebook allows you to share interesting content quickly with your friends, either by sending it to them in a message, or by posting it on your Profile, to your friend’s Wall, or to a group Wall.
RSVP buttons (pre-RSVP): Across from the Event name, toward the top-right corner of the page, you should see three big buttons: I’m Attending, Maybe, and No. Click the proper button to RSVP.
Attendance Status (post-RSVP): If you’ve already said you’ll be going to an Event, right below its name, you’ll see a sentence reading You are Attending (or might attend, or not attending, depending on your response).
Event Privacy: Next to your attendance status you’ll see a notice about whether the Event is public or private.
Event Info: This area is further divided into convenient sections to show you the when (Time), where (Location), who (Created By), and what (More Info) of the Event.
The Wall: The Event Wall, like the Wall on your Profile, is where Event guests can leave messages, photos, videos, and relevant links for all the guests to share. In general, the Wall is where people explain why they can’t make an Event, or where they express their enthusiasm about coming to an Event.

The left column, which is topped by the Event Profile Picture, contains information about invitations. Assuming you’re looking at a Public Event, after you RSVPed, you’ll see a button just beneath it that you can click to Select Guests to Invite.

The rest of the left column is dedicated to guests. The Attending list is on top and shows you names and thumbnails of guests. At the very bottom of any Event page are two useful links:

Export: You can export Events as calendar events to programs like iCal, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Calendar. Clicking this link brings up a pop-up window that allows you to export the particular Event you are looking at, or export all of your Events automatically.
Report Event: If you ever are invited to or see an Event that is harassing, hateful, explicit, or spam, you can report it by clicking this link.