Tip of the week # 606
25 May 2020


Quick way to create a distribution list (Microsoft Outlook) *

This week's tip is inspired by a question from one of the 98 (!) people who attended last week's Cambridge Network webinar. (Thanks for organising, Andrea!)

Although I could answer the question (how to add people to a contact group) I missed the opportunity to promote what I believe is by far the quickest way to create a distribution list - or Contact Group as they are nowadays called. Contact groups can be particularly helpful if you regularly email or schedule meetings with a certain group of people.

Here's how:

  1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + L. (L for list, if you need a mnemonic.)
  2. Type a name for your contact group.
  3. Click on the Add Members button and add people from your Outlook Contacts or Address Book or type a New e-mail contact. (You can also copy and paste names from an existing email message; see tip_387.php.)
  4. Click Save & Close.

In future, simply use the name of the contact group to send them an email or invite them to a meeting. If you click on the plus next to the group's name you will see all the people in the group and you could temporarily remove one of the recipients. Useful if you want to organise a party for one of them, but you don't want them to know about it.

Related tips

  1. Create a distribution list from a single e-mail : tip_387.php
  2. Top ten Microsoft Outlook shortcuts : tip_538.php

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* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.