Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of beekeeper
beekeeper

asked on

creating an e-mail distribution list

When creating an e-mail distribution list in Microsoft
Outlook, it appears that you have to add one recipient
at a time. Is there not some way to import a comma delimited
file, or an excel spreadsheet, so that one may automate the
process when creating a larger distribution list?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Neo_mvps
Neo_mvps

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
If it is Outlook2k you can select multiples and copy them over all at once.  That is in the next-to-last link.  That still doesn't help on the importing issue.
I had to figure out a way of doing a similar thing a few days ago. The only way I found was as follows:

1) Create a subfolder under Contacts
2) Use the Import/Export wizard (File menu) to import a CSV file to this subfolder
3) Create a new DL (distribution list)
4) You should now be able to multiple-select all the newly-imported Contacts from the subfolder & put them in the DL (as in the earlier suggestions)
5) You can now delete the contacts you imported & the subfolder - your DL should retain the data.
Avatar of GUEEN
Hi Beekeeper,

Have any of the solutions offered above resolved your problem?
Here are some options:
Select the expert answer that best resolved your problem.
If more then one expert helped you solve your problem and
you would like to divide the points: Post a 0 point question
in the Community Support area
https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qList.jsp?ta=commspt 
and add a link that points back to this question.

If the solutions above did not resolve your problem:
1. Create a 0 point question that links back to this question.
Sometimes trying other queues will bring more responses
https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/zonesAll.jsp
2. Post a 0 point question in the Community Support area
https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qList.jsp?ta=commspt
and add a link that points back to this question, with a
request to have points awarded back to your account.
What version of Outlook is beekeeper using?
beekeeper, did any of these comments help you?

PandoraMod
Moderator @ Experts Exchange
It appears that beekeeper has left the building.
actually, beekeeper has been around EE - I'm hoping to get his/her attention. This was a pretty good Q and was hoping the questioner would close it by choosing the method they found most useful.
Avatar of beekeeper

ASKER

We run a mix of Outlook2000 and Outlook98 in this office.  The user who wanted the distribution list was running Outlook98.

I had the email addresses for her distribution list (all sixty four of them) in a text file.

Beluga's answer was intriguing, but it looked to me like I would have to convert each of the sixty four simple email addresses into the following format, in order for the CSV file to properly populate the fields in the Contacts subfolder.

"","Xxxxxxx","","Xxxxx","","","","",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"","0/0/00",,,"0/0/00",,,,"xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.net","xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.net",,,,,"Unspecified",,,"X.X.",,"","","",,,,,,,"Normal","False",,,"Normal"

and that seemed like too much work.

I wound up cutting and pasting all the addresses as a unit, into the "TO" box of a single email message, and then saving that message AS a template.  Then I showed the user how to access the template.  It's not pretty, but it's cheap.

Thanks PandoraMod for getting my attention.  We're real busy here, but I love to pop into the Experts-Exchange whenever I can.  The answers to my question were helpful, in a way, for they confirmed my impression that there is no easy way to convert a text file of simple email addresses into a distribution list in Outlook, without scripting the process.

I guess the right thing to do is to split the points between slink9, Neo_mvps, and Beluga
and I would like to ask Beluga if I'm right about the format of the CSV file for the Contacts folder.
beekeeper, I will reduce the points on this question to 50 points. You can then award this question to one of the experts. Next, you should create two new questions in this topic area for the other two experts. Name them "Points for <expert name>," assign them 50 points and put a link to this question as the question (I've pasted here for you).
https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qShow.jsp?qid=20088667

glad to help.
Beekeeper,

Sorry for the delay in replying. You are correct that if the CSV file is not in the right format, it's difficult to get Outlook to recognise it.

You're OK if you've entered the details into another MS product (like Excel) and saved it as a CSV from there, but if you've entered the addresses into a plain text file (it sounds like you have) then it's not straightforward.

Splitting the points sounds good to me.