Create your own group with MSN Groups
Published: September 26, 2005
In the past few months, I’ve had experienced several life-changing events. My daughter went to her senior prom, graduated from high school, and left for a three-week vacation in South Africa. My parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and I got a kitten. I have a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, I can’t share them over e-mail because of the sheer number of them. I can’t afford to print them all, either, and I really don’t want to burn CDs or DVDs and send them through snail mail. While researching this article, I found that many people in our Expert Zone community have problems sharing similar information with groups of people.
Then, I discovered MSN Groups—a group of Web sites created by Microsoft that hosts thousands of personalized online groups. These groups, which are sometimes referred to as Web communities, are created by people who want to communicate with others—specifically, those who have hobbies or interests similar to their own. Members of MSN groups can share e-mail, pictures, movies, team rosters, work projects, artwork, and more. Group creators can even configure a message board that group members can post to. Best of all, MSN Groups are free of charge and easy to create. This was just the solution I was looking for.
In this column, I show you how to create a group with MSN Groups. I start by helping you decide what type of group to create, and then I demonstrate how to create it, upload images to the group Web site, and invite people to join. I also provide some tips for managing the group.
Decide on the type of group to create
There are all sorts of existing MSN groups. Some groups have thousands of members, but most have only a handful. Some were created by automobile, travel, and computer enthusiasts; some by movie, music, trivia, and television buffs; and others by health, wellness, and fitness devotees. Coaches from all over the world create groups for the purpose of sharing schedules and team rosters, and team leaders create groups to share information with their team members. Groups have unlimited uses, and these are only a few of them.
During my research, I found many MSN groups created for and by families so that they could have a place to share photos, e-mail, and the like from a central location. Members can even manage an online calendar to keep up with appointments, games, and other events. Because you choose who can visit or join your group, you control who sees your data and are thus assured of your privacy.
So, what type of group do you want to create? Do you want to communicate with friends and family, team members, project managers, or people with hobbies similar to your own? Decide that, then create a description. This description should detail the purpose of your site and will be included in your group listing. If you’re creating a group to share photos and communicate with family members (as I am), you may want to use your family surname as your group name.
Create the group
After you’ve decided on what type of group you want to create, you can begin creating it. First, make sure that you have a Microsoft .NET passport. If you don’t, get one here. When you have your passport, go to the MSN Groups home page, and then click Create a group now (the fourth option in the Welcome to MSN Groups choices). Group creation is entirely wizard driven, so I won’t go into the process in detail. However, here is a list of the information you need to provide when creating your group:
| • | Group name and description. |
| • | Group rating (General, Mature, or Adult) |
| • | Membership policy (See the section “Manage the group” for more about the implications of your policy choice.) |
| • | Automatic file deletion setting (None or Automatically Delete Photos, Files, and Message Posts) |
| • | Group moderation policy (Unmoderated or Moderated) |
| • | Directory listing option (Listed or Unlisted) |
| • | Preferred language |
| • | A category for your group (such as Home & Families) |
| • | A sub-category that represents your group (such as Family Photos) |
| • | Your e-mail address and a nickname |
| • | A method for reading group messages (Inbox, Daily Digest, or On the Web) |
| • | Format for incoming e-mail messages (Text Only or HTML) |
Read the Code of Conduct, select the I Accept check box, and then click Create my group! After group creation is complete, you’ll be redirected to your new MSN Group Web page. Spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with the page, and add it to your Favorites list.
Explore your MSN group
On the left side of your group’s Web page, several links appear, as the figure below shows. By clicking these links, you and your group members can chat in real time; exchange messages; access a calendar; and share pictures, documents, and links.
Tools for navigating your MSN group.
The bottom link is Manager Tools. This link takes you to the control center from which you can personalize your group pages and manage your group.
Manage your group
When you were setting up your group, you had to decide whether to make the group public. If you chose Public, anyone can view your group and become a member without your permission. In short, you gave up a lot of management control. You can still delete members, ban them, or cancel their membership, but that’s about all.
Instead, consider the Restricted Public option. With this option, people can view your group but cannot become members without your permission. If you really want some privacy, go with the Private option. No one can view the group without applying—period. This setting is probably good for a family Web site.
Besides controlling how group memberships are granted, you can also control the content that appears on your group’s pages. By selecting the Moderated status, you can view and approve all messages before they are sent or posted, change your group’s category, or even change the group’s description.
To change management settings at any time
1. | In the left pane, click Manager Tools. |
2. | Click Adjust Your Group Settings. |
3. | Make changes as desired. |
To change the order of the links
1. | In the left pane, click Manager Tools. |
2. | Click Manage Pages. |
3. | Highlight a page, then click the arrows to move selected page up or down in the list. |
4. | If you don’t want your users to have access to a certain page, you can hide it by selecting it in the list, then selecting the Hide the page check box, as the figure below shows. |
Hiding or rearranging pages.
As you can see, you have many other management options: Spend some time getting to know them.
Add images to your home page
Before inviting people to join your group, you should add something to the group pages so your new members will have something to browse through when they visit for the first time. Hopefully, they will also be encouraged to upload their own data. I recommend adding photos.
To add images to the Pictures page
1. | In the left pane, click Pictures. |
2. | On the Pictures page, click Add Photos.
Note: You must have the installed to be able to add photos to your group page. If you don’t have the MSN Photo Upload Control installed already, you will prompted to install it. You don’t have to install the control, but doing so allows you to upload multiple images at the same time as well as edit images. |
3. | Using the folder structure on the Add Photos to "Pictures" page, browse to the location of the photos stored on your hard drive or network. |
4. | Select the check box on each picture you want to upload, as the figure below shows.  Select images to upload. Note: You can choose to upload print-quality photos, but such images take up much more MSN Group space than compressed images do. As the Storage Meter shows, you have only a limited amount of space to work with. |
5. | To edit an image before uploading it to your Pictures page, select Edit Photos, and then use the controls to zoom in or out, rotate, increase or decrease brightness, or crop the image. When you’re finished, click View Thumbnails. |
6. | To resize an image, click Resize Photo at the bottom of the page, and then select Standard size (recommended), Small size, or Don’t resize. If you’re concerned about how much storage space you have remaining, choose Small size. When you’re finished, click Upload Now. |
7. | Click Pictures to see the uploaded images. |
(If you’d like to see the pictures in my folder, click here.)
Invite people to join your group
Now, you can now invite others to join your group.
To invite people to join your group
1. | In the left pane, click Manager Tools. |
2. | On the Manager Tools page, click Invite Others to Join. |
3. | In the text box labeled 1, type the e-mail addresses of the people you want to invite, using commas to separate the names. |
4. | In the text box labeled 2, type a message to be sent to the people you’re inviting. |
5. | Click Send Invitation, and then click Go to Home page. |
Because you’ve invited people to join rather than visit, they’ll automatically be added to your membership list as soon as the receive the invitation and decide to join. To join, your recipients simply click Join Now, log on to MSN with their .NET passport, and configure how they’d like to receive e-mail from the group. Then, they’ll be redirected to your MSN Group home page.
An MSN group is a fast and easy way to keep in touch with family members, fellow sports enthusiasts, or a project team at work. You can also connect with people you haven’t even met who share interests similar to your own. But best of all, groups are free and simple to create and manage. After you’ve created your group, drop me a note at Joli_Ballew@hotmail.com; I’d love to visit.
 | Joli Ballew is a technology trainer and writer in the Dallas area. She holds several certifications including MCSE, A+, and MCDST. Joli has almost 20 books available, including Degunking Windows (Paraglyph Press), Hardcore Windows XP (McGraw-Hill), and Windows XP: Do Amazing Things (Microsoft Press). Joli is also a regular Microsoft Expert Zone columnist. Joli can be contacted at Joli_Ballew@hotmail.com.
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