Topics to help you get the most from Google Groups

• How do I unsubscribe from a Group?

• How do I attach a model (or a picture) to my post?

• How do I use Groups with my email account? (Another file attachment option)

• Custom Signatures

• Favorites - watching and email updates

• Spell chekcing [sic]

• Search the Group Archive

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Don't forget to click the "Save these settings" button.

[ TaffGoch ]

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How do I Attach a Model (or a Picture) to My Post?

Help Center Answer

 

     The only way to attach a file directly to your post is by submitting the post by email. Attachments to email posts appear as a clickable filename along with a small thumbnail representation, the appearance of which varies depending on the file type.

 

     If you wish to post by email, look at the bottom of the detailed list view for each section of the Group, and you will see the email address for that section. If you wish to respond to an existing thread, use the exact subject title of the thread for the subject of your email.  Spelling and punctuation counts, so copy and paste is a good thing.  And usually your emailed post will file the right thread.  If you wish to start a new thread, give your email a unique subject/title line.

 

     If you want to use the Group web page interface instead of email (which happens to be my personal preference), you can’t attach files directly to your post, but you can upload the file separately and place a clickable hyperlink to it in your post, which works very nicely.

 

     To do this, go to the Files page of the Group. Notice the boldfaced link called Files on the right-hand sidebar of the Group web pages. If you click on that, you’ll go to the Files page, where there is a very self-explanatory upload button, which allows you to browse your hard drive for files.

 

     After you’ve finished uploading one or more files, you should right click on the file name in the Files list view and pick Copy Shortcut, which will put the web address (URL) of the file in your Clipboard. Then you can navigate back to the discussion thread, create a new post, and paste the URL into your post, allowing others to easily download your file without leaving the discussion page.

 

Note: When attaching various files to your e-mailed posts (or uploading them to the Group Files section), be sure you're not inadvertently infringing on someone else's Intellectual Property rights or bypassing the IP owner's preferred method of distribution, which is not permitted by Google. If you want to "attach" an image or a model or, say, a Ruby script that does not belong to you and is already accessible on some other web site, the better way to post it is to paste the URL for the other site, whence it can be viewed or downloaded in whatever manner the owner has arranged. 

 

- Gully Foyle

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[ Cat's comment from the following section is worth repeating here -- August ] 

     When you email a post, the Sender name you set up in your email account preferences appears as the forum poster - which may not be your forum user-name.  If you want your forum user name to appear, either reset the email preferences before you send the message or set up another email account.

 

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How do I Use Groups With My Email Account?  Another file attachment option...

Help Center Answers

 

An opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons...    

 

One of the neat things about emailing a post is being able to attach files.  The attachments produce download links at the bottom of the post.  

 

    

GGroups allow many file formats attachments.  Most files only make a distinctive looking download link.  While image files produce a small thumbnail in addition to a View and Download link (clicking on the image also opens a larger image view.)  It's nice to include a screen capture teaser image attachment to an attached SKP or STYLE file.  Multiple attachments can be sent in a single post.  Attachments are not stored or managed by the Group's Files section.

  

When you email a post, the Sender name you set up in your email account preferences appears as the forum poster - which may not be your forum user-name.  If you want your forum user name to appear, either reset the email preferences before you send the message or set up another email account.

 

  

 

A free email account that lets use an IMAP server - like gmail - allows you to manage that account from your computer's mail program in real-time.  Because it adds a duplicate folder structure to your mail program, you might want to add its Inbox to the mail program's Favorites.  The IMAP makes this type of account very portable, being accessible from several computers. 

 

  

    

Your Google account and the Groups allow multiple email addresses if you want to juggle multiple email accounts here.  So it's possible to set up a distinct account just to send posts in different Google Groups.  In your Google account, choose the primary and secondary email accounts (if you have gmail, the gmail account will automatically set as the primary account.)  Then go to a SU group and go to 'Edit my membership" in the right column.  Choose your email account preference for the group - and press the Save button.  Note: there may be a delay before the group recognizes the change. 

 

If you want to retain the ability to Remove a post when managing multiple email accounts, try to keep the same email accounts you used to join the group.  GGroups only let you remove posts under your current email group account membership. 

 

[ catamountain ]

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Custom signatures 

 

There are at least two ways to add signatures to your Group posts.  If you use email, you can add signatures to each email account in the preferences.  Signatures can include stuff like links, contact info, and of course, cute sign-offs.

 

The following image is from Outlook 2003.  Other email programs have something similar.

 

 

  

      

 

The other method is to save signature text as a macro and add them to the post through a keyboard hotkey.  Some highly regarded macro editors include:

• Qliner  Hotkey / Macro Recorder Utility - Supports international keyboards - Free - Win
• AutoHotkey  Hotkey / Macro Recorder Utility - Free - Win
• PS Hot Launch  Hotkey / Macro Recorder Utility - Free - Win
• PhraseExpress  Clipboard utility - access to common phrases, stuff - Win
• KeyText3  Auto-phrase completer - Win

 

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Favorites - watching and email update

 

Your Favorites is a feature found on the top of the Groups web page.  It allows you to manage group threads you like.

 

To add stuff to Favorites, click on the star alongside a discussion thread or open a thread and click on the star in the thread itself.  The star will add things to the Favorites list.  Another way to be updated is to go into Options to the right of a thread header and opt for an email update.  Sometimes an envelope icon may appear alongside the star icon in a thread.  That can be clicked on too to receive email updates.  But that icon rarely makes an appearance.

 

 

Sounds good, but the collection in Favorites is short-lived - probably lasting only 2 months.  If you want to reliable future reference to any thread, bookmark it in your browser and/or store a copy on your harddrive. Or try out the new Google service called iGoogle for storing favorites.  That's the link, Add to Google.

 

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 Spell Checking

 

It's possible to check post spelling before sending the post.  Some browsers have build-in spell checkers.  Mozilla Firefox is one of them.  Select the text, right-click, and an option appears to Spell check the field.  Questionable words are underlined in red.  Right-click those words for spelling options.

 

In Internet Explorer, spell checking is not featured.  Rather you need to install a browser helper object, BHO, like ieSpell.  It adds a right-click context menu spell check tools as well as some entries in the browser Tool menu.  It supports three flavors of English: American, British and Canadian.

 

Another free, Windows form speller is tinySpell .

 

 - catamountain

 

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Search the Group Archive

 

There are some hidden search gems tucked into Groups.  One is located through the more group info link, on the right column, on the main Discussions pages.  The Archive allows you to search past postings by monthly increments.  If you only want to look something up by a specific user, then go through their profile.  The profile is next to the name inside a thread.  If the user changed their registered email address to this group, then there are multiple personal archives.