We think Facebook's new Timeline layout is pretty sweet, if only for its awesome customizability. If you're adamant about wanting the old Facebook back, though, a simple Chrome extension can abolish the Timeline for good. Here's how.

We've talked about one way to ditch Timeline's annoyances before, but that method didn't really bring back the old Facebook—it just made Timeline easier to use. This extension will actually bring back the old Facebook, using what we can only imagine is some form of ancient wizardry—and all you need to do is install the extension. Hit the link below to check it out, and your Timeline woes will be gone—though you can always bring it back by going to the extension's options.

Note that people visiting your profile will still see your Timeline. There's no way to get rid of it completely, only block it from showing up on your machine. Still, this extension works shockingly well, so all Timeline haters should check it out pronto if you want to see the old, familiar layout in your day-to-day browsing.

TimelineRemove | Chrome Web Store via AddictiveTips

Facebook's new Timeline feature is rolling out to all users, and while we think it's pretty awesome—not to mention ripe for customization—there are a lot of people who aren't big fans. If you don't really like the Timeline view, here's how to get rid of it.

This method won't take you back to the old layout, but it will get rid of some of Timeline's clutter, like the cover photo, friends box, and two-column view. The layout will still be different and timeline-y, but it will be much cleaner. It won't change anything about how other people see your profile—just how you view Facebook on your machine. All you need is an extension called Social Fixer. Here's what you need to do.

1. Head to Socialfixer.com and install the extension for your browser. It's available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and any browser that supports Greasemonkey. Sadly, Internet Explorer is not supported.
2. Once you've installed it, navigate to Facebook.com. You'll notice that there's a lot of extra clutter there right off the bat, but don't worry, we'll fix that in a moment. Look up at the top of the page, to the left of your name. You should see a new wrench icon. Click on that and choose "Social Fixer Options".
3. Before you do anything else, go through each of the categories and uncheck every box. There are a lot of useful features in there, but for now, we're going to leave them all blank so we can view Facebook as we're more used to it. If you see features you like, you can go back and re-enable them later on. For now, uncheck everything you see.
4. Go to the "Timeline" section of Social Fixer's options, and check the bottom four boxes: "Display posts in a single column", "Hide cover photos", "Hide the friends box", and "Hide maps of check-ins". Click Save.
5. Find a Facebook profile that has timeline enabled (whether it's your own or someone else's). You should find that while the basics of Timeline are still intact (like the "About" link or the new square profile picture), all the annoying parts are gone. The cover photo, friends box, maps box, and dual-column view have all been obliterated, and you can view Facebook in a much more eye-friendly format.

Again, remember that other people will still view your profile as the original Timeline view—so you can still add a cover photo for their viewing pleasure, if you wish. I also recommend browsing through Social Fixer's options when you get a chance. There are some pretty cool features in there, like changing the font sizes, hiding the "ticker", and more. If you want to uninstall Social Fixer and take Facebook back to the way it was, you can do so from your browser's add-on page (Firefox > Add-Ons in Firefox, and Wrench icon > Tools > Extensions in Chrome).

Got any other tips for making Timeline more bearable? Share them in the comments below.

Facebook's new, awesome Timeline feature is rolling out to everyone, and a few early adopters have discovered a neat trick where you cut your profile picture out from your cover photo, for a very cool picture-in-picture effect. Here's how to do it.

There are two main methods to this trick: one for those that have Photoshop (which we found via our friends at Gizmodo), and one for those that don't. Here's how they both work.

If You Have Photoshop

If you have a copy of Photoshop, your life has been made easy by design team Ausgetrock.net, who have put together a template and Photoshop action that makes sizing up your photo a cinch. All you need is a big photo with your desired profile picture in the bottom left area—or an overlay that you can add to the bottom left corner of a picture to represent yourself. To put it all together, open up the Photoshop template (which looks like a Facebook profile page), paste in your picture so that it aligns correctly with the way it'll look on your profile, then run the Photoshop action to create two images: one that you'll upload as your profile picture, and one that you'll upload as your cover photo. Photoshop will have cropped them each correctly so the final product looks like one, big image. See the video above to see how it's done.

If You Don't Have Photoshop

Update: If you use free image editor the GIMP, reader Aaron118 has shared an XCF template that should make creating your Timeline banner dead simple. For all other image editors, though, you can use the manual method below.

Doing it manually takes a bit of trial and error. Essentially, you need to take one large photo and crop it correctly so that you end up with an 851x314 cover photo and a 125x125 profile picture. Because Facebook requires your profile picture to be at least 180x180, though, even though it resizes it to 125x125, we're going to create our image accordingly (that is, a 180x180 profile picture, and a 1225x452 cover photo). That way, everything stays high quality and it lines up correctly. Here's what you need to do:

1. Find an image for your cover/profile picture hybrid. Make sure it's big. The bigger, the better, as it'll give you much more room to work. It needs to be at least 1225x508, but the more space you can give yourself on the sides, the better—especially if you're trying to line up a specific portion of the picture as your profile pic (like we did in the above Spider-Man example). If your image is too small, you may not get things to align correctly and you'll be out of luck.
2. Find a square portion of the image that you want to be your profile picture. In the example at the top of this post, I used Spider-Man's face. Resize the entire image so that that square is 180x180 pixels, if necessary.
3. Crop out that 180x180 square and save it as your profile picture. Once it's saved, hit Undo so you go back to a view of the full image. That square should still be selected, so don't unselect it yet. We need it to judge which portion of the full image is our cover photo.
4. Grab the left edge of that 180x180 square, and drag it to the left 80 pixels, so that the square becomes a 220x180 selection. Then, grab the bottom edge and drag it up 56 pixels, so your selection becomes a small 220x124 rectangle. At no point in this step should you have moved the selection—just drag the edges.
5. Grab the right edge of that selection and drag it out until the selection is 1225 pixels wide, then grab the top edge and drag it up until it's 452 pixels tall. Crop the photo there, and save that new image as your cover photo.
6. Upload each of those images to Facebook in their respective spots—cover photo and profile picture—and let your freinds' jealousy start flowing.

If you did everything correctly, you should get something like the image at the top of this post, where everything aligns to form one big, cool, picture-in-picture effect. If not, go back and try again. This method can take a bit of trial and error sometimes before you get it working. You may also find (as I did, with the Spider-Man image) that the image isn't wide or tall enough to fit the dimensions you need. In some photos, like the Spider-Man one, you can use the clone stamp tool to extend the edge of the photo outwards, or do some fancy photo editing to get things to fit. If not, you'll have to find a new cover photo, sadly. Again: the bigger your source image, the better. Try it out for yourself, and if you get some pretty cool results, share them with us in the comments below!

Android: Facebook rolled out its new Timeline feature yesterday, and if you've enabled the cool new interface, you can update the Android app to get it on your phone as well.

The new version is mostly an interface update, but if you're using Timeline, you'll definitely want to check it out. You get the cover photo, map thumbnails, and the top-down view of all your posts. You can even swipe through albums right from the Timeline view, which is a really nice touch. The update isn't out for iOS yet, but iOS users can head to m.facebook.com to see the new changes if they so desire. Hit the link to read more.

Timeline: Now Available on Mobile | Facebook Blog