Experts' Expert: Fixing typos on Facebook

New York Times "Gadgetwise" columnist J.D. Biersdorfer is as good as anyone out there at translating technical gibberish into terms even a TechnoDolt®™© can understand.

To that end, her recent "Q&A" on how to correct a mistake in a Facebook posting.

I must confess that I hadn't a clue how to do so before reading her advice and have always just deleted updates with mistakes rather than let them stand.

Same with Twitter, which as far as I know doesn't let you edit your posts.

On the other hand, with Twitter it's no big deal to rewrite ≤140 characters, versus the drag of retyping a much longer Facebook entry.

Here's the Times item.

Q. Is there a way to correct Facebook comments after you post them? I often notice hideous typos only after I've hit the Enter key.

A. While it used to be that the only way to edit a bungled comment was to delete it, redo it and post it again, Facebook recently rolled out a new editing function that makes correcting typos much easier. To modify a comment after you have posted it, move the mouse cursor over the top right corner of the post until you see a pencil icon appear.

Click on the pencil icon to see a menu that offers the choice of Edit and Delete. Select the Edit option and the comment text is now ready for correction. Press the Enter key to post the edited version of the comment. If you select the wrong comment to fix or change your mind, press the Escape key on the keyboard to get out of the editing mode.

Facebook keeps track of modified comments so users can see any adjustments that have been made. Comments that have been retroactively corrected display an Edited link underneath the text. Clicking on the Edited link shows the editing history and changes made to that particular comment.

You can only edit your own comments on a page, but you can remove or report offending posts from others on your own Facebook page. To do so, move the mouse cursor over to the right side of the comment that annoyed you and click the X that appears next to it. A menu appears with the choices to Delete, Hide as Spam or Report as Abuse.

The video up top, "I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat," "is a novelty song composed and written by Alan Livingston, Billy May and Warren Foster. It was sung by Mel Blanc, who provided the voice of the bird, Tweety and of his nemesis Sylvester."

More from the song's Wikipedia entry: "The lyrics depict the basic formula of the Tweety-Sylvester cartoons released by Warner Bros. throughout the late 1940s into the early 1960s: Tweety wanting to live a contented life, only to be harassed by Sylvester (who is looking to eat the canary), and Tweety's mistress shooing the cat away. Toward the end of the song, the two perform a duet, with Tweety coaxing Sylvester into singing with him after promising that his (Tweety's) mistress won't chase him (Sylvester) away."

And: "'I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat' reached No. 9 on the Billboard pop chart during a seven-week chart run in February and March 1951, and sold more than 2 million records."