Facebook, Inc. has a knack for enabling social media users to create special reels of their digital lives. Remember the 0ne-minute “Facebook Look Back” video that lets you highlight all the important things that happened since you started using Facebook, to the “Say Thanks” video which allowed you to create personalized thank-you clips for the special people in your life?

To end 2014, Facebook has once again provided a way for photo-happy users to pick their favorite moments of the year and present it in an album of sorts.

You may have already noticed some of your friends posting “[Name of friend]’s Year” on their Timeline. If you click on it, a window will pop up where you can see photos of their adventures (or misadventures) for 2014. The photo reel is sectioned by month, and as with the other Facebook highlights reels, you can edit out any pre-selected photos that aren’t satisfactory.

How to edit Your Year

First, choose whether you want to use your computer or mobile device to edit your Facebook year. For me, it was easier to edit it using my smartphone. Just open your Facebook app and you will be automatically presented with the unpublished version of Your Year.

Tapping on it, you will see the pre-selected photos Facebook has chosen for you. The great thing about using your smartphone to edit Your Year is that if you want to change your photos, you can choose from your Facebook Photos or upload photos from your phone gallery. Since many of us use our smartphones to take snapshots of our lives on the go, we have a huge selection of photos right on our smartphone.

After editing your cover photo, you can now choose a theme for you reel to make it more personal. There are six themes to choose from.

Using a desktop to edit your photo highlights of the year has limited customization options. As mentioned earlier, when using mobile you can choose to upload directly from your phone gallery. If you use desktop, you can only choose photos that you have previously uploaded on Facebook for 2014.

Each section of the reel only allows you to upload or select four photos. Once you have published Your Year, you can no longer edit or replace the photos you have put there. Make sure you review your post before publishing!.

At the moment, iOS users have not reported problems editing their Facebook year in review, but a friend on mine using an Android device was not even given with a way to create his own Facebook highlight. The feature may not be available yet for Facebook on Android.

photo credit: Steluma via photopin cc