The Big Gift List - How Does It Work?

This short guide will explain the process for creating a new list and inviting your friends to view it. You can also view a step-by-step guide of receiving an invite and selecting items to buy from the list here.

Once you registered and logged in you will be presented with your profile page. From here you can access all of the features available on The Big Gift List. The top most buttons are for viewing your gift lists and your wish list (Your wish list is where you can add items to your own private list). Click 'My Gift Lists' to continue.

As we are new to The Big Gift List the next page will not show any lists at the moment. To create our first list click the 'New List' button at the bottom of the page.

You will now see a short form for creating the list. You can enter a title for the list, select the occasion (wedding, birthday, etc), choose one of dozens of styles for the list, and finally select the date of the occasion.

Once the list has been created you will be taken directly to the new lists page. Obviously as this is a new list there are no items on it. Lets add an item, click the 'Add Item' button at the bottom (you could also use the bookmarklet)

You will see another form allowing you to enter the information about the item. If you have found the item for sale on another website you can enter the web address for it in the form. You can also select how important the item is to you, which will indicate to other people the items you most want.

We can now see our first item listed on the page. If you need to you can make further changes to the item by clicking 'Edit', you can delete the item by clicking 'Delete', or even move it to your wish list. Lets now invite some friends to view the list. Click 'Invitations' at the bottom of the page.

Normally this page will display a list of all the people you have sent an invite to for this list. However as this is a new list there are no invites. Let's send an invite - click 'Send Invite' at the bottom of the page.

A small form will display the options for sending an invite. You can send to everyone in your address book, a specific category of people in your address book, a new friend, or a specific person from your address book. A standard message will have been created for you already, but you can edit it to suit your needs.

Once the invite has been sent your friend will receive an email containing your message along with registration and log-in instructions. They can now see your list and select items they would like to buy you. Remember, you cannot see what items have been selected by your friends until the day AFTER the list finishes. You can now send additional invites, or return to the list to continue adding items.