Rhonda Bracey: At Random

A few weeks ago, the Yahoo! Groups web interface underwent a redesign. Some people on one of my Yahoo! Groups are having trouble finding the uploaded files and how to search for archived messages. So here are the instructions for the members of that group — they apply equally to other Yahoo! Groups that have this new — but less user friendly — interface.

Here’s a screenshot of the new interface; I’ve used numbers to mark the areas I discuss below.

After logging into Yahoo! Groups, you’ll see all your groups listed in the Groups Home panel on the left (#1 in the screenshot above), and your Yahoo! ID will show in the top right corner (#7). Click on the group you want to see.

The main menu for the selected group sits under the banner photo — the active view has a dark blue line underneath it (Conversations [#2] in the screenshot above). When you’re in the Conversations view, you can change the subview from Topics to Messages to Trending. Messages is selected in the screenshot (#3) — when selected, the text changes to black and a tiny pale white indicator shows beneath it. Yes, that indicator is very hard to see!

How to find the files

1. Click More on the menu bar immediately below the banner picture (#4 in the screenshot).
2. Select Files.
3. Click the folder you want to view.
4. Click the file you want to open. Depending on your browser window settings, the file will either open in your browser, or open independently in the applicable application (e.g. Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Word).
5. If you want to download the file to your own computer, right click on the file, then select Save Link As (for Firefox) or Save target as (Internet Explorer) (I can’t give you the options for other browsers as I don’t have them installed).

How to search the messages

1. Look ABOVE the banner picture! (yes, it took me a while to find it too!)
2. Enter your search text in the Search Conversations box (#5 in the screenshot).
3. Click Search Groups (#6).
4. Once you’ve got your search results, you can either scroll down, or continue on and do an advanced search (that box is just above the start of the results list).