TUTORIAL: Creating a Grouple Using Firefox

This is for all contributors, or those considering contributing a Grouple.

Since I created Grouple, I've been experimenting with different ways to collect data for Grouples, and the method I'm about to describe seems by far to be the most efficient.

I haven't tested this method on a Mac, only on a PC. So if you are a Mac user, please let me know what, if anything, needs to be done differently so that I can make this tutorial available for both Mac and PC users. Thanks!

1. Download and install Mozilla's Firefox web browser. www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox

2. Open Firefox and vist this addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firef… to install the All-In-One Sidebar extension.

3. Once it's installed, restart Firefox.

4. You will now see a series of icons on the left of your Firefox browser. These are part of the All-in-One Toolbar.

5. Click on the icon that looks like a book with a bookmark sticking out of it. This opens your bookmarks.

6. Create a folder called TEMPLATE. Within it, create sub-folders for all of your commonly used Grouple categories. My template folder includes the following folders:

_ General
Anti-
Art-Focused
Characters
Cosplay
Fan Characters
Fan Fiction
Geographical
Pairings
Roleplay
Shared Fandoms
zzz Miscellaneous

The _ and zzz are used to position certain folders automatically at the top and bottom when sorting.

You may use whatever category folders you like.

7. Right-click on the TEMPLATE folder. Choose "Copy."

8. Right-click somewhere else in the bookmarks area and choose "Paste."

9. Rename the copy to whatever topic you are currently creating a Grouple for. For the purpose of this tutorial, I'll rename it to "Wolf's Rain."

10. Begin searching for groups related to your topic at the DA Groups search page groups.deviantart.com. In this example, my topic contains an apostrophe. Unfortunately, DA's group search ignores all searches that contain apostrophe, so I have to search for "Wolf Rain" instead of "Wolf's Rain."

11. Examine the DA group search results. By reviewing the descriptive paragraph and avatar logos you can quickly determine which groups apply to your topic.

In this example, the DA group search system finds 47 results. The first search result is not related to "Wolf's Rain," but the second one, Wolfs-RainFans, is.

12. For each group relevant to your topic, it is CRITICAL</b> that you click AND hold the cursor on the group's avatar. Once selected, drag the avatar (without releasing your initial hold) over to your bookmark folder in the sidebar. The reason you want to grab the avatar is that the name of the link will be in the :icon format, which is what you need when creating the Grouple text. Bookmarking any other link will result in having to re-type the :icon link.

13. If the description or name of the group is clear enough, you may drag it directly to a sub-folder, such as "Characters." Otherwise, simply drag it to the main folder for your topic.

14. Repeat steps 12 through 13 for each relevant group in the DA group search results. You may have to visit the group's themselves to determine if they are relevant. If that is the case, you can also drag those to the folder and delete them later.

15. Expand your topic's folder in the sidebar by clicking on the arrow to the left of it's name.

16. Notice that there is a generic icon next to the groups you haven't visited. For those that you have visited, the DA favicon (or icon) appears. This will help you determine which ones you have visited and which ones you have not.

17. Begin visiting each group in your topic folder. Determine if the group is active/relevant enough for inclusion. If so, make sure it is in the right category folder.

18. While on each group's page, view that group's affiliates. If you see any that may be related to your topic, you may drag their avatars to your bookmark folder for later viewing.

19. To sort a folder, right click on it and choose "Sort by Name."

20. When you have successfully found all of the relevant and active groups on your topic, go to the Bookmarks menu and choose "Organize Bookmarks."

21. This brings up the Library window. Click on the "Import and Backup" button on the Library's toolbar. Select "Export HTML..."

22. Name and save the HTML file in a place where you can easily find it.

23. Exit the Library window.

24. Navigate to where you saved the HTML file. Double-click to open it. (You may want to actually bookmark this file if you plan to keep the same name each time you export.)

25. It should open in Firefox. If not, you may need to change your default browser to Firefox or right-click on the file and choose "Open with..." and select Firefox.

26. Once the file is open in Firefox, navigate to the point in the list of bookmarks at which your topic folder appears. You will notice that the topic's groups are listed under their topic folder and sub-folder categories with indents.

27. Select the text that relates to your category.

28. Paste it into a blank Notepad document (or some other plain text program) so that the links will no longer be "live" links.

29. From this point, you may copy/paste the text into Word or work with it in Notepad.

30. If you have Word, there is an additional trick you can use to clean up the data. Search for :^p (with another : on the end) and replace with :SPACE (replacing SPACE for an actual space and including another : on the end). This will pull all of the related groups onto a single line, rather than individual lines.

31. From there you just need to add HTML tags and beginning/end content and the "Artist's Comments" portion of your Grouple is ready to go!

BONUS TIP: Create a bookmark for each of your existing Grouples -- it makes updating quicker. Maybe even create a folder for each Grouple so you can drag updates to it and then export.

If you have any questions about this technique, just let me know.

Thanks!