FAQs:
- How are my homepage preferences stored?
- What if I don't sign in to AOL.com?
- Why did all of the changes I made to my page disappear?
- How can I prevent the changes I make to my page from being lost?
- Why don't I see the changes I've made to my page on other computers?
- What if I have my page set up one way at home and another way at work?
- What happens on a shared computer?
- Why weren't my changes applied to my profile?
- What can I customize on AOL.com?

Q: How are my homepage preferences stored?
A: If you sign in on AOL.com or if you come to the page already signed in, your preferences will be stored as part of your profile and associated with your screen name. This means that you can visit AOL.com from any computer and sign in to access your homepage set up exactly the way you like, with your theme, your links, etc. We will do a one-time transfer of your settings the first time you sign in. After that, you will want to sign in before you make additional updates in order for them to be saved properly.

Q: What if I don't sign in to AOL.com?
A: You can still customize AOL.com without signing in. When you do this, your preferences are stored in a cookie on your computer. Cookies store information you enter on a Web page, such as preferences or login information, to save you time later. The drawback to this is that if you delete your cookies, you will lose any customization work you've done. Please keep this in mind if you decide not to sign in to the page. Click here for more information on cookies.

Q: Why did all of the changes I made to my page disappear?
A: If you have never signed in to save your page, and if your browser cookies get deleted, you will lose your preferences. Cookies are the way that your individual choices are managed. So if your cookies are deleted or if your settings are such that you don't allow cookies to be saved, then your customization choices will also not be able to be saved for the next time you visit the page. If you have already signed in before to save your settings and you aren't seeing them, check the sign-in area in the upper right-hand corner of the page and make sure you see "Hello" messaging which will tell you that you are signed in.

Q: How can I prevent the changes I make to my page from being lost?
A: Signing in will prevent your changes from being lost.

Q: Why don't I see the changes I've made to my page on other computers?
A: If you haven't signed in to AOL.com at least once to save your page, you will not be able to see your customized page on another computer. If you have signed in before and you still aren't seeing your page properly, check to make sure you are properly signed in. To check this, look in the upper right corner of the page next to the Search area; if you see "Sign In" instead of "Hello" messaging, you are not signed in.

Q: What if I have my page set up one way at home and another way at work?
A: Whichever page you sign into first will be the one associated with your screen name moving forward. However, signing in will not cause you to lose the personalization that was there before. So, if you go to work and sign in to AOL.com and it pulls in your home setup, you can click "Sign Out" to go back to your work version of the page. As long as you keep your cookie from being deleted on that computer, you will be able to keep that personalization intact as long as you are signed out. If you would like to keep separate and distinct saved pages, our recommendation is to use a different screen name for each page. More more information on having multiple screen names, click here.

Q: What happens on a shared computer?
A: If you access AOL.com on a shared computer, any customization that is done to the page is stored in a shared cookie. This forces you to have to share settings with others. Now you have the ability to sign in to access your page with your settings and maintain them -- whenever and wherever you are signed in. When you sign out, the page will go back to the way it was previously. The next person who uses the computer can then sign in and follow the same course of action, or they can choose to use the page without being signed in.

Q: Why weren't my changes applied to my profile?
A: The first time you sign in after this new feature is available, we will transfer all of your settings to your screen name so that you can take them with you. This "transfer" only happens the first time you sign in. After the initial settings transfer, all changes that you make while you're signed in will continue to be saved to your screen name. Going forward, if you make changes before signing in, these updates will not be transferred. This is why it's important to always sign in to the page or use the "Keep Me Signed In" feature if you'd like to ensure that all of your settings will be tied to your screen name.

Q: What can I customize on AOL.com?
A: One of the great things about AOL.com is that there are lots of ways to customize the page to both make it look the way you want it to look and give you the information that is most important and useful to you. Here are a few key areas:

Themes: Customize the coloring and background of the new page. There are lots of fun and stylish themes to choose from.

My Links: Add any links to the page so that your favorite sites are just one click away. You can also reorder the AOL Directory by dragging and dropping items to be able to put the links in whatever order best meets your needs.

My Stuff: Select the four preview panels you'd like to see by default when you load the page.

My Local: Enter and store up to five different locations to get weather, real-time news, gas prices and lottery information.

News Feeds RSS Browser: Add individual RSS feeds and categories to the page to be able to see content from your favorite external sites.

Expand & Collapse: Minimize or maximize many of the content spaces on the page. We will remember the state you left that section in the next time you visit the page.

Customize Your Page: Click the Customize Your Page button to add or remove items to the center column of your page.

If you haven't yet customized anything on AOL.com, we recommend signing in first to ensure that everything is applied to your screen name.

You may notice something new on the AOL homepage -- "Real-Time Topics" have been added to news headline sections like Top News, Entertainment News, Sports News and Finance News.

Real-Time Topics serves up items that are hot and topical from across the Web. Each link will take you to a dedicated Love.com page that has been created around a person or topic. Love.com is a site that provides real-time news, videos and more, for all of the topics you love (there are 300,000 of them!).

Here's where to find Real-Time Topics on your homepage (check out the area circled in red):
Clicking on a link will open an topic page at Love.com like the one shown here:

(example shown - http://sonia-sotomayor.love.com/)

You can take Real-Time Topics to a whole new level by creating your own dashboard of items. It's easy to set up -- just click "Add" in the upper right of any topic page, and then go to http://i.love.com/ to view your dashboard. You can add as many topics as you want to track, and you will get continuous updates which will ensure you are seeing the freshest content.

We hope you love this fun and topical feature geared towards helping you stay on top of everything you want to know. Do let us know what you think!
The AOL Homepages Team