Keep in touch with MSN Spaces
People blog for all sorts of reasons. You might want to share your love of music with a friend or relative who is living in another state (or on another continent); keep in touch with old friends who have scattered around the globe; host an online reading group; give your customers a closer look at your worldwide services and products; or just journal the story of your daily life, adding photos, video, and more to express what you find in your corner of the world.
MSN Spaces includes features that help you stay in touch with each of those groups in just the right way.
| • | If you want your MSN Space to be open to everyone, you can set up public permissions (the default setting when you create your MSN Space); |
| • | If you want to create a private group to keep in touch with a study group, work team, or just family, you can create a private space and give permissions to only those on a specific contact list; |
| • | Coming soon: If you're interested in sharing your MSN Space with a greater number of people but don't want to open it up to the masses, you will soon be able to set a Friends feature that enables those that you specify as Friends (and their Friends, if you choose) to access your space. |
Setting your space permissions
The permissions level you set for your MSN Space determines who gets to see your space. You choose the permissions for your MSN Space when you first create it, but you can modify the permissions at any time.
After you create your space, you can set a permissions level that determines who can see your space.
To view or change your permission settings, follow these steps:
1. | Log in to your MSN Space. |
2. | Click the Edit Your MSN Space link on the right side of the screen. |
3. | Click Settings. |
4. | Click the Permissions tab. Now click the Permissions down-arrow to see the various settings that are available to you. The following list explains the different choices: | • | Public means everyone can visit your MSN Space and a link to your space is available in the Updated Spaces list (on the MSN Spaces home page and the MSN Spaces of others who display that module on their spaces) after you update it. | | • | Messenger means only those on your MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger contact list will be able to visit and comment on your space. | | • | Messenger & Friends (this feature is coming soon) will enable you to specify others as Friends and grant them (and their Friends, if you choose) access. | | • | Custom enables you to add and/or select people that you want to allow to read and comment on your space. |
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5. | Click your choice and click Save.  Choose from a variety of settings to specify who can view your space. |
Creating a private group
If you want to create a specialized MSN Space—maybe for your family, work team, church group, book club, or other special group that you're part of—use the Custom permission setting in the Permissions tab. Choosing Custom enables you to add people from your Messenger list as well as the Contacts that you specify.
To add people to your Contacts list so that they can access your MSN Space, follow these steps:
1. | Display the Permissions tab (log in, click Edit Your Space, and click the Permissions tab). |
2. | Click the Permissions down-arrow and choose Custom. |
3. | Click the Custom checkbox and scroll down to the Add text box. |
4. | Type the e-mail address of a contact that you want to add to your private group and click Add. The contact is added to the My Contacts list. |
5. | Click the checkbox of the contact to give that person access to your private MSN Space. |
6. | Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add the rest of your contacts, and then click Save to save your settings. |
Use the Custom permission setting to create your own custom list of people that can view your space.
Others in your group will need to have a Windows Live ID in order to sign in and access your MSN Space. You might want to send everyone a quick note explaining your new MSN Space, inviting them to come to the MSN Spaces home page and click Go to your space. If they don't have a Windows Live ID (formerly known as an MSN Passport), they can click the Sign Up button on the Sign In page to get one (it's free!).
Now you can begin using your MSN Space to keep in touch your way—choose a theme that you like, add your favorite photos, create lists that you all enjoy and resources that you will use, and more. Be creative, have fun, and enjoy staying in touch with your group!
