How to Create a Distribution List in Outlook? If you frequently deal with the same group of people in Outlook, chances are you also need to send a general email to everyone.
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Instead of manually typing out each person’s email address, you can use a useful Outlook feature called “Distribution Lists”. This feature allows you to email all members of a group at once.
How to Create a Distribution List in Outlook?
Once you’ve created a distribution list (also known as a contact group list), you just need to enter the group name when composing a new message. Later, you can add/remove group members as per your wish from Outlook settings.
Create a Distribution List in Outlook On The Desktop
- Open the Outlook app.
- Select the People icon in the lower left corner.
- On the Home tab, click New Contact Group.
- Specify a preferred name for the contact group.
- Click Add Member and choose from Outlook Contacts. You can also choose one of the other options to include contact from your address book or create a new one.
- At the Select member contacts prompt, double-click the contact that you want to add. To add multiple contacts, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting them.
- Now click on the Members button.
- When you’re done, click Save & Close in the top left corner.
Create a Distribution List in Outlook On the Web
- Launch a browser application and log in to your Outlook account.
- Click the People icon in the sidebar.
- Next, click the down arrow next to New Contact and select New Contact List.
- Enter a name for the group under the Contact list name.
- Under Add email addresses, enter the email addresses of the people you want to add to the group and press Enter. To unadd the person, click the cross icon next to the associated email address.
- Provide group description if desired.
- Click on the Create button.
Create a Distribution List in Outlook On Mac
- Open Outlook and select the Contacts icon.
- Then, on the Home tab, choose New Contact Group or New Contact List, depending on your version of Outlook.
- In the next window, name the contact group.
- To add someone to the group, click the Add button and enter a name/email address.
- Click Save & Close.
How to Edit the Contact Group List?
After creating a contact group, you can always edit it later if you find someone is missing or want to exclude someone.
Outlook On The Web
- After logging in to your Outlook account, click on the Contacts icon and select All Contact Lists.
- In the right pane, select the contact list you want to edit.
- Click Edit on the top bar.
- Enter the email address you want to add and click Add.
- Click the cross icon next to the email address of the person you want to remove from the group.
- Apart from this, you can also rename the contact list and edit the description section as well.
- Click Save to apply the new changes.
On The Desktop
- Click the Contacts icon and open the Contact group you want to edit.
- Under the Contact Group tab, select the member you want to add/remove and click Add Member or Remove Member on the top bar.
- Click Save & Close.
How to Send Email Using Contact List Group?
Once you create a contact group, it syncs to the other platform (web app) as well. So you can use it to send email to all the members of the group. The process is the same as sending an email to a personal email address.
- Select the Inbox icon and click New Email to compose a new message. On Outlook Web, click New Message.
- Now type the name of the group next to the To field. As you type, Outlook suggests individual contacts with contact list names. Select a contact group from the recommended list.
- Fill in other required fields and click on submit button.
Contact List Option Grayed Out on Mac
If you are unable to access the Contact List from the File menu, you will need to enable it in Preferences.
Launch Outlook and click on its icon.
Then choose the Preferences option.
Under the Personal Settings option, click General.
Next, uncheck the Hide folders on the My Computer box at the bottom of the sidebar.