Database in New YG

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The Database in YG

USES
THE BASICS
VIDEO TUTORIAL

USES

The database function in Yahoo Groups can be quite useful. For example:

make a list of participants with all their important contact information
post specific assignments here using the table format
divide participants into working groups with tasks and deadlines for discussion,
create a joint document with each paragraph a record and room to add comments
have participants register for the sessions with guest speakers. In that way, you can give the presenter an approximate number of participants

Luckily, YG's database is much easier to use than a spreadsheet application like Excel.

THE BASICS

1. To get started, make sure you are signed in with your YG. Go to >Groups from the top menu, if you aren't already at your YG address.

2. Pull down the >More menu on the front page of your Yahoo Group (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

3. You will see the link to >Database (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

4. Once in the Database area, click on >Create Table (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

5. Fill in the form with the title, and names of columns (Figure 4). Note that you can control who has access to change the database in the Change Policy fields. This is useful if you want participants to add or edit their own information, but we suggest only moderators or owners be allowed to change/edit the table.

Figure 4.

6. Use >Add field (circled in red) to create more columns (Figure 4). Once the table is created, you can add a new column or row at any time, and edit the title and column names directly, using the >Edit Table button.

7. Click on >Create Table at the bottom of the page to continue (Figure 4).

8. Your new table can be edited from the left column by hovering over the cells to see >Add Column and >Add Row (see Figure 5).

Figure 5.

8. Be sure to >Save your table before continuing (Figure 6). Each time you >Save the table, the >Edit Table button will appear.

Figure 6.

9. Notice that you can >Export the table to a format readable by Excel, and you can also >Print the table.

10. After a table is created, you can scroll up and down with the side and bottom sliders. You can use the arrow at the top of the first column to view the contents alphabetically. When you click >Edit Table, a new row will appear automatically at the bottom of the database.