| Building Outlook Distribution Lists |
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| Monday, 05 June 2006 | |
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One Microsoft Outlook feature that people don't use as often as they could is distribution lists. Part of this may be because people don't know how to create them. I think another group doesn't understand how much easier they can make regular correspondence whether it is to 4 friends or 40 business associates. (Includes online tutorial)
If you watch your email habits, you'll probably see that there are certain groups of people you send email to regularly. Perhaps, it's a weekly project status report. Or, it could be a family newsletter with snapshots of the kids. The content routinely changes, but the recipients stay the same. These types of situations are great for using distribution lists. Benefits of Distribution ListsThere are several benefits to using distribution lists in Outlook. The first is that it cuts the time it takes to address your emails. Rather than adding a dozen contacts, you add the name of the list. You might think of the list as an internal alias list as the recipient won't know a list is involved. The other benefit is consistency. Once you have the list properly set up, you don't have to worry inadvertently leaving someone off. How many times have you seen someone get upset because they were not listed on an email? It wasn't intentional, but just an oversight. Creating the Outlook Distribution ListTo create the list, 1. From the New menu, select Distribution List. 2. In the Untitled " Distribution List panel, click Select Members? to add people in your Contacts folder. You can click Add New.. to add other email addresses. 3. In the Select Members dialog, select the contact to add. You can press the Ctrl key and click on each one. 4. Click the Members > button to add your contacts. 5. Click OK to accept the entries. You'll return to the Untitled " Distribution List panel. 6. Type a name for your list in the Name: text box. 7. Click the Notes tab and add some descriptive text about the list. 8. Click the Save and Close button. Your list entry now shows in your Contacts folder. If you look to the right of the title you should see an icon with two heads. This indicates the item is a distribution list. You can click the entry and see which contacts are in your list. What the Recipient SeesYou can use the distribution list just like any other contact entry when sending email. The name can be assigned to the To:, Cc: or Bcc fields. The important thing to remember is that the distribution name is internal. The name does not display when the recipients get their email. As you see in the online demo, I created a distribution list called "clients". Although I see the name "clients" when I compose the email, the recipients will see the full listing of all the names in the distribution list. From their perspective, they don't even know I have a list. Some people think that the recipients see the distribution list name. This can be an issue if you have a list that is private. Using my "clients" example, I would not want the other recipients to see who else is on the list. In this case, I would add the list to the Bcc field. In this case, the recipient only sees his or her name. Additional Resource:
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 20 July 2008 ) |
