Groups
The Learning Center
Find your groups
Before you search for your groups, make sure that you’re in the organization view instead of the public view.
- Go to Groups http://groups.google.com and click My groups.
- Click Switch organization view to "yourdomain.com".
This means that the groups you see and join will be within your organization, and not public.
To search for a group, at the top of any Groups page, type a word or phrase in the search box. To help you search faster, Groups suggests search terms as you type. Click one of the suggestions to open it, or click Search to see a list of results.
Join a new group
You can subscribe to any group in your Groups directory that's open to new members. Some groups let you subscribe directly, while others might require you to send a request.
1. In the Groups directory, click the group to open the group's page.
2. On the group's page, click Join group or Apply to join group.
3. Choose how you want to read messages that are sent to the group, whether or not to link to your Google profile and show your picture on posts, and the display name you want members to see. Then click Join this group or Apply to join this group.
A group can contain one or more topics. A topic is just like a conversation—it contains one or more posts (or messages) about a particular subject.
In this section, you learn how to:
2.1 Find a topic
To view a group's Topics page, open the group's page in the Groups directory.
If your group has too many topics to browse easily, you can quickly organize and find topics using search, filters, and tags.
Search for a specific topic:
- At the top of the Groups window, type your topic in the search box.
- To help you search faster, Groups suggests search terms as you type. Click one of the suggestions to open it, or click Search to see a list of results.
Filter topics:
On the Topics page, click Filters to see your options.
Note: If you don’t see Filters, it means you don’t have the filter permissions for this particular group.
Check any filters you want to apply to the topic list.
Click Apply selected filters to display a list of topics that match your filters.
(Optional) To return to the complete list of topics again, click FiltersClear all filters (display all topics).
Use tags:
Some groups use tags to categorize and find topics. If your group uses tags, you see Tags on the group’s Topics page. You can also enter tags when you post a new topic or edit one of your existing topics.
2.2 Star important topics
You can star topics that are important to you, so you can quickly find them again. Just click the star next to the topic on the Topics page.
In the sidebar, click Starred to list all your starred topics.
2.3 Respond to a topic
Depending on the type of group and your personal settings and permissions, you can read and respond to posts, either on the forum or using email. If your group is set up as a Collaborative Inbox or Q&A forum, for example, you’ll probably read and respond to posts using the group’s online forum.
- Find your group and show the group’s Topics page.
- Topics with unread posts appear in bold text against a white background.
- Click the topic you want to read. The first post in the topic appears on top, followed by any responses.
- Click Post Reply below any post in the topic, or click in the Reply field of the original post.
- Type your reply in the space that appears.
- Click Post to send your message to the group.
2.4 Start a new topic
You can start your own topics (in email or from a forum) for people to respond to.
Start a new topic from email:
Just email the group. The subject of your email becomes the topic subject.
Start a new topic from a forum:
- At the top left of the group’s Topics page, click either New Topic or New Question (depending on the type of group).
- Type your Subject or Question title, depending on which you’re asked for. Based on the type of group and your group permissions, you might see an option to select the type of post, including:
- Discussion () Creates a general discussion topic. If you clicked New Topic and don’t see any other options, you’re starting a discussion.
- Question () Creates a new question in a Q&A forum. If you clicked New Question and don’t see any other options, your topic will be a question.
- Announcement () Creates a topic containing important information. All members of the group can read announcements, but typically only group owners or managers can create them.
- Type the first post for the topic and click Post. The topic appears in the group’s topic list.
2.5 Resolve a topic
In some types of groups, you can resolve a topic by selecting a Best answer (for questions in a Q&A forum) or marking the topic as Complete (for discussions in Collaborative Inboxes).
- Open the topic.
- Click Mark as complete or Mark as best answer on the appropriate post.
2.6 Delete a post in a topic
Expand the post.
Click the Down arrow and select Delete post.
People viewing the topic will see a message that a post was deleted, but they won’t see who the post was from.