Exporting

[Shellack]

1) I have been looking at ways of sharing group data. I exported a group's messages using Export To Folder, which produced a PG4 file. I then attempted to open the file using Open Database but the only file type offered was DB3 and so no PG4 file was listed. However, on entering "*.*" it became visible and I was able to open it successfully. Why then is the data exported as a PG4 rather than DB3 file? (BTW the Help pages say it is exported as an MDB but I can't see where that is.)

2) I also tried exporting messages via the Export icon as a pipe-delimited HTML. The file extension is TXT but when I open the file I get an illegible jumble of text. However, if I change the extension to HTML I can open the file in a browser in a legible format. Wouldn't it be better then if the export were to an HTML file?

3) I love the Group Stats facility but is there any way they can be exported to a CSV file which can be opened in a spreadsheet?

Thanks!

Nick

[Wilson Logan]

Do View -- > Statistics Builder


A nice way to provide the data to people who don’t want to use PGO (which is free to import & read data BTW, no excuses now!)  is to copy and paste from PGO to Word or PDF.

I show how to do it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs--bRiKjaU&t=170s


In the example  I’m saving as MHTML  which is basically a universal format but as I’m pasting into Word I could save it as any Word format e.g. DOCX, RTF, PDF, etc.

I tend to set messages per page in PGO to 5000 ish so you’re not doing hundreds of manual copy & paste operations.


Cheers,

Wilson.

[Shellack]

Thanks. I had not looked at Stats Builder but now I see there is a lot of options in there. Just the business!

I followed the instructions in the YT vid but I can't honestly see much advantage over exporting as pipe-delimited HTML, especially as the process is rather long-winded. The pipe-delimited method also includes the time of each message, which can be useful. So I guess I'll stick with the small inconvenience of changing the file extension.

[BMaverick]

Wilson,

With your PGO software, I was able to export to a CSV pipe delimited text file.  That works AWESOME.

Then using OPENOFFICE CALC (aka clone of MS-Excel) I can then import the CSV as FILE > OPEN > (pick the CSV file), then change the 'comma' box check to 'other' box check, then type in the keyboard pipe character that looks like this | and pick OK. 

This format came in sooooo clean.   Easy to adjust, search and filter like any Excel file. Save to ANY FORMAT you like then after.

Now, I was able to find the SPAM, Yahoo & AOL an other sponsor ads, the porn posters and the weird HTML-5 characters to remove them via the FIND/REPLACE tool. 

This saved WEEKS of clean up in a matter of an hour or two. 

About 1/3rd of the total content (1/3rd junk content) was removed, making the file smaller and easy to load as a PDF or HTML or Excel or ODS.

Thanks again for the ability to export a file for archiving to easily search and filter!

BMaverick

[casstk]

Does the PG4 Export contain all the Group's Files/Photos/Attachments and Links?

I have volunteers who want to send us the entire set of data linked to one Group but would rather not have to manually copy and paste each folder to send along with the PG4 file

[Wilson Logan]

Sorry, the PG4 file contains messages & attachments.

To share Files, Photos & Links you need to zip up the folders and share them.

You can of course ZIP all the folders and the PG4 file into one zip file.

Cheers,

Wilson.

[BMaverick]

Does the PG4 Export contain all the Group's Files/Photos/Attachments and Links?

I have volunteers who want to send us the entire set of data linked to one Group but would rather not have to manually copy and paste each folder to send along with the PG4 file

PG4 or PGO can export the messages to the formats it lists.

As for the photos, those are in a separate folder.   Not knowing how many or at what resolution, these can be HUGE in the hundred MB for an album or two.  Thus, Dropbox or some other means is needed.  You will need to review the image photo sizes.

For migrating our groups, we used an OpenSoft Free program to batch all the images from HUGE sizes to the 1024x768 size.  This still retained full details and took 5Mb files down to 240kb on each. 

As for the Links, those are stored in a folder as well.  YG places a 6 or 9 digit number code at the end of each one for their records.  Since we didn't have many, I manually stripped those. 

Does your group use a FILE section on YG?  If so, PGO will have these in a folder too.

As for the database files on YG, one can download those directly from YG to a CSV file.  Very much like PGO does for the messages in one of the export formats.

There is a slew of conversations going on on the Groups.IO moderators forums on using the PGO at times.  BUT, to get to these forums here, the PGO sends folks to an empty and dead link instead of this forum site here. 

BMaverick

[Wilson Logan]

"BUT, to get to these forums here, the PGO sends folks to an empty and dead link instead of this forum site here. "

Sorry?   What link? 

[BMaverick]

In PGO 4.0.902 and the other PG4, at the top go to HELP > ABOUT.

The links there show the forum located at www.pgoffiline.com/smf  When clicking on that link, it goes to a dead web address.

See the attached.