facebookscreensaverhowto

HowTo Set your Mac OS X Screen Saver to display your Facebook Status Update

Follow these steps to set your Mac OS X Screen Saver to display your Facebook Status Updates.

Facebook is a social networking site where you can keep track of your friends. For the most part, you need to log into Facebook to see most of the updates, but Facebook also provides an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed that allows you to keep track of your friend's status updates. It is possible to have your Mac's screen saver monitor your Facebook feed and display your friend's updates.

Step 1: Get your Facebook RSS Feed Link

The first step is to log into your Flickr account and go to the page for your friend's status. You can get there following the following link: http://www.facebook.com/friends/?status. (Facebook also provides a RSS feed for your Friend's Posted Items at http://www.facebook.com/posted.php (the subscribe link is on the right hand side)

Step 2: Copy your Facebook RSS Link

On the left hand side of the page, there is a link labeled "Subscribe to Feed" which is the link to the RSS feed. Either <CTRL> + Click or Right Click on the link. that is marked "Latest" where is says to Subscribe to your photostream.

Step 3: Open your Desktop and Screen Saver Preferences

From Your Desktop

From your Mac desktop, either <CTRL> + Click or Right Click and select "Change Desktop Background". This may not seem like the right place, but it is.

From System Preferences

You can also change your screen saver by starting the Systems Preferences application and choosing the Desktop & Screen Saver panel

The System Preferences application will start and launch the Desktop & Screen Saver panel.

Step 4: Set up the RSS Screen Saver

Your Mac comes with some pretty standard screen savers from Apple and these are listed at the top. If you want to set your screen saver to display your Facebook updates, select the "RSS Visualizer" Screen Saver from the list.

Choose the Options ... button and then paste your feed URL into the Feed URL text box and select the Done button. In the preview area, you should see your Facebook updates start to appear.

Your Mac will now present your Facebook updates on the screen saver. This works with all RSS Feeds if you have your favorite news or blog feed that you would like to monitor.