Whether they like or not, all Facebook users will be forced to use the new profile called "Timeline" in the next couple of weeks.

The idea behind Timeline is a visually appealing story of someone's life. Facebook has a section on its website introducing the new update with the phrase, "Tell your life story with a new kind of profile."

The idea was originally introduced in September 2011 and made available to developers. More than a million people signed up as of early December 2011 for beta access and gave feedback on the new profile. On Dec. 15, 2011, it was announced Timeline was available to everyone.

According to a blog post Tuesday, "Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline."

Opting in gives a user a seven-day preview period to fix up the timeline before it is published. However, the timeline goes live automatically after the seven days if a user doesn't choose to make it live before the preview period is over.