Creating a distribution list in ol2k3

  • Thread starter Thread starter Colonel Blip
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Colonel Blip

I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file based on a
specific category of contacts form my contact list. Is there way to do this
short of manual input one at a time?
 
There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need to?
If you've already configured categories, you can use them the same way you
would a DL. As an added advantage, they actually work and will remain
updated as you update Contact records.
 
I i have a list of 100 email addresses in a word document, what is the quickest/easiest way to add them to one group/distribution list so I can send an email to all of them without having to manual enter each email address into a to: field or without having to put all off those people in my contacts/address book

thanks!
 
If I understand you correctly, you want to create a group of recipients to
which you would send a message from Outlook without using your Outlook
Address Book or Contacts Folder?
No can do.
I suppose you could create a Word Table or Excel Sheet that you could use as
a data source for a mail merge to electronic mail and avoid entering
recipients into Outlook that way.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
I i have a list of 100 email addresses in a word document, what is the
quickest/easiest way to add them to one group/distribution list so I can
send an email to all of them without having to manual enter each email
address into a to: field or without having to put all off those people in my
contacts/address book?
 
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by just listing their email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook, everyone has to be in your contacts/address book
 
I've never used Eudora, but it is hard for me to believe that you can create
a group of recipients in Eudora and not have it stored somewhere. You can
certainly create Distribution Lists in Outlook, but you still have to store
this list in the Contacts Folder. I bet you do in Eudora, too.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by just listing their
email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook, everyone has to be
in your contacts/address book?
 
I don't understand what exactly you're saying, perhaps its becuase we're used to referring to the lists by different names (contact, distribution etc.) bottom line is if you send me a word document of 100 names in a list format and if I wanted to get an email to all these people I can create a new list in the address book and just paste the list of email addresses into the group and then send an email to them, the whole thing takes 2 minutes. But as far as I can tell with outlook I'd have to spend hours individually entering each one of these email addresses into my address book with a name and contact info. Is this correct

Thanks
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: ----

I've never used Eudora, but it is hard for me to believe that you can creat
a group of recipients in Eudora and not have it stored somewhere. You ca
certainly create Distribution Lists in Outlook, but you still have to stor
this list in the Contacts Folder. I bet you do in Eudora, too
--
Russ Valentin
[MVP-Outlook
Jason said:
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by just listing thei
email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook, everyone has to b
in your contacts/address book
 
No. You can easily import them to your Contacts Folder. But you cannot
import them directly into a DL. That's not much of a limitation. Few of us
use DL's in Outlook anyway because they are so buggy and inflexible.
Importing the Contacts into a separate Contacts subfolder is a much better
way to go.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
I don't understand what exactly you're saying, perhaps its becuase we're
used to referring to the lists by different names (contact, distribution
etc.) bottom line is if you send me a word document of 100 names in a list
format and if I wanted to get an email to all these people I can create a
new list in the address book and just paste the list of email addresses into
the group and then send an email to them, the whole thing takes 2 minutes.
But as far as I can tell with outlook I'd have to spend hours individually
entering each one of these email addresses into my address book with a name
and contact info. Is this correct?
Thanks,
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: -----

I've never used Eudora, but it is hard for me to believe that you can create
a group of recipients in Eudora and not have it stored somewhere. You can
certainly create Distribution Lists in Outlook, but you still have to store
this list in the Contacts Folder. I bet you do in Eudora, too.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by just
listing their
email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook, everyone has to be
in your contacts/address book?
 
how do i import them to a contacts subfolder
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: ----

No. You can easily import them to your Contacts Folder. But you canno
import them directly into a DL. That's not much of a limitation. Few of u
use DL's in Outlook anyway because they are so buggy and inflexible
Importing the Contacts into a separate Contacts subfolder is a much bette
way to go
--
Russ Valentin
[MVP-Outlook
Jason said:
I don't understand what exactly you're saying, perhaps its becuase we'r
used to referring to the lists by different names (contact, distributio
etc.) bottom line is if you send me a word document of 100 names in a lis
format and if I wanted to get an email to all these people I can create
new list in the address book and just paste the list of email addresses int
the group and then send an email to them, the whole thing takes 2 minutes
But as far as I can tell with outlook I'd have to spend hours individuall
entering each one of these email addresses into my address book with a nam
and contact info. Is this correct
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: ----
I've never used Eudora, but it is hard for me to believe that you ca
creat
a group of recipients in Eudora and not have it stored somewhere. Yo ca
certainly create Distribution Lists in Outlook, but you still have t stor
this list in the Contacts Folder. I bet you do in Eudora, too
--
Russ Valentin
[MVP-Outlook
Jason said:
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by jus
listing thei
email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook, everyon has to b
in your contacts/address book
 
That would depend on the format of the existing list, which you have not
mentioned.
If it is a Word Table, simply convert it to a Tab or Comma separated file
and import that file into a Contacts subfolder.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
how do i import them to a contacts subfolder?
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: -----

No. You can easily import them to your Contacts Folder. But you cannot
import them directly into a DL. That's not much of a limitation. Few of us
use DL's in Outlook anyway because they are so buggy and inflexible.
Importing the Contacts into a separate Contacts subfolder is a much better
way to go.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
I don't understand what exactly you're saying, perhaps its becuase
we're
used to referring to the lists by different names (contact, distribution
etc.) bottom line is if you send me a word document of 100 names in a list
format and if I wanted to get an email to all these people I can create a
new list in the address book and just paste the list of email addresses into
the group and then send an email to them, the whole thing takes 2 minutes.
But as far as I can tell with outlook I'd have to spend hours individually
entering each one of these email addresses into my address book with a name
and contact info. Is this correct?
----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: -----
I've never used Eudora, but it is hard for me to believe that
you can
create
a group of recipients in Eudora and not have it stored
somewhere. You
can
certainly create Distribution Lists in Outlook, but you still
have to
store
this list in the Contacts Folder. I bet you do in Eudora, too.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
For instance in Eudora I can create a list of people by just
listing their
email addresses, there is no way to do this with outlook,
everyone
has to be
in your contacts/address book?
 
Russ,

I'm at a loss on how one can use contact list of a specific category of
contacts to send an email as one would with a dl. Can you point me a little
further in the right direction? I can list the contacts in a view by
category but have no idea how to mail something to this group w/o creating
the list.

Russ Valentine said:
There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need to?
If you've already configured categories, you can use them the same
way you would a DL. As an added advantage, they actually work and
will remain updated as you update Contact records.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Colonel Blip said:
I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file based
on a specific category of contacts form my contact list. Is there
way to do this short of manual input one at a time?

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________
 
Select the Category Header
Actions > New Message to Contact
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Colonel Blip said:
Russ,

I'm at a loss on how one can use contact list of a specific category of
contacts to send an email as one would with a dl. Can you point me a little
further in the right direction? I can list the contacts in a view by
category but have no idea how to mail something to this group w/o creating
the list.

Russ Valentine said:
There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need to?
If you've already configured categories, you can use them the same
way you would a DL. As an added advantage, they actually work and
will remain updated as you update Contact records.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file based
on a specific category of contacts form my contact list. Is there
way to do this short of manual input one at a time?

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________
 
The email addresses are just listed in a word document, no tables, no commas nothing, just plain old text. In other words a list that looks like this

(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
etc....

How could I get an email out to all these people
 
You can't. That's not a data source at all. You must at least have a data
source suitable for importing into Outlook. If not, you'll have to enter the
data manually.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jason said:
The email addresses are just listed in a word document, no tables, no
commas nothing, just plain old text. In other words a list that looks like
this:
 
Thanks. Still have a problem which I can overcome by adding a new category
listing. Currently the category I have setup includes all of those I desire
to send to BUT also includes some without email addresses.

I would still like to be able to recreate my dl periodically, preferrably
via a macro, but maybe it is not worth the effort as you mentioned.

Russ Valentine said:
Select the Category Header
Actions > New Message to Contact
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Colonel Blip said:
Russ,

I'm at a loss on how one can use contact list of a specific
category of contacts to send an email as one would with a dl. Can
you point me a little further in the right direction? I can list
the contacts in a view by category but have no idea how to mail
something to this group w/o creating the list.

There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need to?
If you've already configured categories, you can use them the same
way you would a DL. As an added advantage, they actually work and
will remain updated as you update Contact records.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file
based on a specific category of contacts form my contact list.
Is there way to do this short of manual input one at a time?

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________
 
Here's the way to do it:
Change the Contacts Folder View to by Category. Right click and drag the
Category required to a newly created Contacts subfolder then choose Copy.
Make sure the new subfolder has been enabled as an email address book by
right clicking on it and choosing Properties > Outlook Address Book Tab >
and check the box to enable as email address book. Create your new
Distribution List and make sure the Show Names drop down field points to
this new subfolder then shift select all the contacts and voila.


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Colonel Blip said:
Thanks. Still have a problem which I can overcome by adding a new category
listing. Currently the category I have setup includes all of those I desire
to send to BUT also includes some without email addresses.

I would still like to be able to recreate my dl periodically, preferrably
via a macro, but maybe it is not worth the effort as you mentioned.

Russ Valentine said:
Select the Category Header
Actions > New Message to Contact
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Russ,

I'm at a loss on how one can use contact list of a specific
category of contacts to send an email as one would with a dl. Can
you point me a little further in the right direction? I can list
the contacts in a view by category but have no idea how to mail
something to this group w/o creating the list.

There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need to?
If you've already configured categories, you can use them the same
way you would a DL. As an added advantage, they actually work and
will remain updated as you update Contact records.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file
based on a specific category of contacts form my contact list.
Is there way to do this short of manual input one at a time?

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________
 
Thanks. Simple enough now that you explained it. <g>

Russ Valentine said:
Here's the way to do it:
Change the Contacts Folder View to by Category. Right click and drag
the Category required to a newly created Contacts subfolder then
choose Copy. Make sure the new subfolder has been enabled as an
email address book by right clicking on it and choosing Properties >
Outlook Address Book Tab > and check the box to enable as email
address book. Create your new Distribution List and make sure the
Show Names drop down field points to this new subfolder then shift
select all the contacts and voila.


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Colonel Blip said:
Thanks. Still have a problem which I can overcome by adding a new
category listing. Currently the category I have setup includes all
of those I desire to send to BUT also includes some without email
addresses.

I would still like to be able to recreate my dl periodically,
preferrably via a macro, but maybe it is not worth the effort as
you mentioned.

Select the Category Header
Actions > New Message to Contact
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Russ,

I'm at a loss on how one can use contact list of a specific
category of contacts to send an email as one would with a dl. Can
you point me a little further in the right direction? I can list
the contacts in a view by category but have no idea how to mail
something to this group w/o creating the list.

message There is a long, awkward way, but one must wonder why you need
to? If you've already configured categories, you can use them
the same way you would a DL. As an added advantage, they
actually work and will remain updated as you update Contact
records. --
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I would like to create a distribution list by creating a file
based on a specific category of contacts form my contact list.
Is there way to do this short of manual input one at a time?

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________

--
Colonel Blip
(e-mail address removed)
Remove "nospam" when replying.
__________________________________
 
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