How to make Facebook more private and productive

Among Worley's tips:

1. Check your privacy settings
One of the most persistent complaints about Facebook is how tricky it is to manage all your privacy settings — and indeed, Facebook ultimately rolled out a totally revamped set of privacy controls in response to the outcry. To access the settings, click the Account link in the top-right corner of the main Facebook page, then click Privacy Settings; from there, you can share all your Facebook profile info with the world, or confine it to just your friends, all in a few clicks.

Simplified though they are, you could still spend hours tinkering away at Facebook's privacy settings. But if you want to quickly lock out any and all outsiders from your Facebook account, go to the left-hand column in the privacy panel and click Friends Only. Want to keep third-party apps from meddling with your Facebook info as well? Click the "Edit your settings" link under Applications and Websites, then manage the access settings for your individual apps in the "Applications you use" section. Or, to cut off all outside app and website access completely, click the "Turn off all platform applications" link.

Related:
Facebook rolls out new, simpler privacy options
How to put your third-party Facebook apps on lockdown

2. Avoid getting stuck in a Facebook chat
The little browser-based IM window in Facebook makes it easy for your pals to see whether you're online and ready to chat — perhaps a little too easy. Luckily, there's a simple way to keep your Facebook presence hidden when you're not in the mood to field a barrage of instant messages. Just click the Chat bar in the bottom of your browser to open the interface, then click Options, and finally select "Go Offline."

Another option is to turn off individual Friends Lists in the Chat interface: Just click the little switch next to the List name to make it go offline or come back online. And if you're already moved over to Facebook's revamped Groups feature, just open the Group page to chat privately with any fellow group members, or click the "X" on the chat bar to deactivate Group chat.

3. Create a Group
Just as you can control who can see you in the Facebook chat window, you can also create a public, private, or even secret space where you can share updates, photos, and other info with only a select group of Facebook friends. Thanks to the recently redesigned Groups feature, you can create one of these private virtual Facebook spaces in just a few clicks.

Here's how it works. Just go to the left-hand column of the main Facebook page, and click the "Create Group" link. A pop-up window will appear that lets you name your group, add new members, and choose a privacy option: public (which means everyone can see who's in your group and what you're sharing), private (the names of your members are public, but the content you're sharing is private), and secret (everything about your group, from its content to the group members, is private).

Related:
Five questions—and answers—about Facebook Groups

4. Personalize your Facebook user name
Facebook recently unveiled its new, unified messaging system, a pumped-up version of its existing chat interface that will incorporate different modes of communication — including email, text messages, and instant messages — into a single, threaded chat window. Part of this "modern" messaging system entails offering everyone on Facebook the option to get an "@facebook.com" email address based on their Facebook user name.

Of course, that assumes you've already designated your own, customized Facebook user name — and if you haven't, you'd better get cracking before all the good user names are taken (and indeed, many of them are already gone).

To pick a user name, click Account in the top right-hand corner of any Facebook page. Then click My Account, click the Setting tab, and enter the user name you'd like under the "Username" heading. If the name you want is already taken, keep trying until you stumble upon one that's still unclaimed. Also, choose wisely — you can only change your user name once.

Related:
Facebook's "modern messaging system" is "not an email killer" … yet

5. Hide annoying wall posts
Couldn't care less whether your Facebook pal just became the mayor of Starbucks, or that your old roommate from college is building an orchard in FarmVille? Here's a quick way to keep those pesky wall posts from junking up your news feed.

Just click the little "X" next to the offending post; then, from the pop-up window, you can elect to zap only the individual item, hide all posts from the annoying application (like FourSquare or FarmVille), or nix any further posts from the Facebook friend who bothered you in the first place.

6. Download Facebook photos to your desktop
Facebook ranks as one of the largest photo repositories on the Web, but downloading photo albums — either your own, or those of your friends — to your desktop isn't as easy as it could be. Luckily, Becky's found a couple of key photo-sharing tools that can help.

First up: FacePAD, a plug-in for Firefox that lets you download an entire Facebook photo album to your desktop. Just visit the FacePAD add-on page and follow the installation instructions — keeping in mind, of course, that you'll need to be using the Firefox browser for the component to work. Once you've installed FacePAD, log back into Facebook, find a photo album you'd like to download, right-click it, and select "Download Album with FacePAD"; a pop-up window will ask you for a directory into which you'd like all of your new photos to be downloaded.

Want to download one of your own photo albums, or all of them? One easy, if space-consuming way to do so is simply to download your entire Facebook profile — including all your shared photos, videos, wall posts ... everything — to your desktop. Just click Account, then Account Settings, select the Settings tab, and click the "learn more" link next to "Download Your Information." When you're ready to proceed, click the Download button. (Think twice — or even three times — before downloading your entire Facebook profile to a desktop that isn't yours.)

Related:
FacePAD download page

7. Get better birthday reminders
Sure, Facebook will already remind you of upcoming birthdays for your friends — but usually only a day or so before the party. Want a little more notice?

Click the Account link at the top of the page, then click Account Settings, select the Notifications tab, and scan the first group of settings. Near the middle, you'll see an option that reads, "Has a birthday coming up." Click the appropriate check box, and you'll get a weekly email digest reminding you of all "Happy Birthday!" messages you'll need to post in the coming week.

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.