Outlook Contact Lists and Sending Emails

[erwalker]

I know I can send an email to my contact list without everyone seeing everyone else's email address by using the bcc function. I know there is a way to send one email to everyone in the contact list so that it looks like only that one person is getting the email. There email address alone would show in the to box. I don't know how to do this.

[LaurenH]

I believe what you are referring to would be mail merge, which you can initiate in Outlook or Word, using Outlook contacts or a separate list. Not sure which version you're using so I recommend googling "mail merge Outlook 20XX" and using your version. Let me know if you need further clarification. I hope this helps!Lauren

[erwalker]

I believe what you are referring to would be mail merge, which you can initiate in Outlook or Word, using Outlook contacts or a separate list. Not sure which version you're using so I recommend googling "mail merge Outlook 20XX" and using your version. Let me know if you need further clarification. I hope this helps!Lauren

 

This is great! Thanks. I have Office v.2010. When starting from Word, I cannot see my contact group as the source. I researched this and found an article that addresses using different Outlook profiles that would cause groups to show, but it does not appear that I have that option available. When starting the mail merge from Outlook, the message I received is that contact groups cannot be used in mail merges. I tried to copy the members of my group to put them in an Excel spreadsheet and use that as the source when starting from Word, but could not determine how to copy, either. Your continued support is appreciated! This has to be less difficult than I am making it.

[LaurenH]

I believe what you are referring to would be mail merge, which you can initiate in Outlook or Word, using Outlook contacts or a separate list. Not sure which version you're using so I recommend googling "mail merge Outlook 20XX" and using your version. Let me know if you need further clarification. I hope this helps!Lauren

 

Well, one would think, right? Except that Microsoft often doesn't take the user-friendly route. I don't believe that there is a way to use mail merge and contact groups (aka. distribution lists) OR a way to export them.

If you will be doing this frequently it might be worth using a category to id everyone in that group. You can do this in bulk by opening the contact group, selecting all of the entries and selecting the 'Categorize' drop down.

Then, you'll need to group by category, select that group and/or all other desired contacts and then merge from there using "only selected contacts". {not the only way, just one way}

Sorry, there may be something more streamlined than this but it's the best I can come up with. Will post if I think of any other options.Good luck!!