How to create a group in outlook to send emails

If you regularly send emails to the group of people like your project team or your amateur soccer club, a one-time effort to create an email group for the distribution list pays off in the future many times. Microsoft Outlook offers a Contact Group to manage contact lists with a handful of personal contacts, email groups with dozens of team members, or distribution lists with thousands of subscribers.

There is no limit to the number of contacts you can add to the email group after Outlook 2007.

To create a new Contact Group, do the following:

   1.   Open the Contact Group dialog box to create a new distribution list for Outlook by doing one of the following:

• In the Contacts view, on the Home tab, in the New group, click the New Contact Group button:
  

• In any other view, on the Home tab, in the New group, click the New Items button and then choose More Items -> Contact Group:
  

• Press Ctrl+Shift+L (a helpful shortcut for those who need to create dozens of email lists).

   2.   In the Contact Group dialog box:

• In the Name field, enter the desired name for the email group (the name can contain spaces).
• On the Contact Group tab, in the Members group, click the Add Members list and then choose how you can add the member:
  
  • If you want to add an existing member From Outlook Contacts or From Address Book, do the following:
    1. In the Address Book drop-down list, click the address book that contains the email addresses that you want to include in your Contact Group:
       

    2. In the list of names, click on the names that you want to add, and then click Members.

    You can add names from different address books to the same Contact Group in Outlook.

  • If you need to add a New E-mail Contact, enter the information for the person from the distribution list in the Add New Member dialog box:
    

  Do this for each person whom you want to add to the Contact Group.

   3.   When you've finished adding contacts to the Contact Group, on the Contact Group tab, in the Actions group, click the Save & Close button:

Now, you can send an email to contact list, email group, or distribution list in a few clicks:

1. Create a new email message.
2. In the To, Cc, or Bcc field, start typing the name of the contact group and use auto-complete, or click the To, Cc, or Bcc button before the address field and select the name of the email group from the list.

Thanks to the contact groups, you can treat a bunch of contacts like a personal contact list, an internal email group, or a public distribution list as if they are a single contact. Moreover, if you use the Bcc field, your recipients receive your message as a regular email message and are not able to see other contact group members.

See also how to export all Contacts from Microsoft Exchange OST file storage to Microsoft Storage PST file.

Here you will learn to set up a Contact Group (local distribution list) where you can manage your own list of members.

Instructions

1. Select the People icon within the bottom left hand corner.

Fig 1. Location of the People icon
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2. In your Contacts, click the New Contact Group button to create a new contact group.

Fig 2. Location of the New Contact Group button

3. Type in a name for your new contact group.

4. Now you will need to add members to this new list. Your can compose the list from the Global Address List and from your personal contacts. In this example, we will add members from the Global Address List (GAL) i. Click on Add Members > From Address Book.

Fig 3. Illustration of entering a name for a new group and the Address Book option

5. Search for contacts that you would like to add to your new list and once you have finished, click OK.

Fig 4. Illustrating adding members to the contact group
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6. Click Save & Close.

Fig 5. Location of Save and Close button
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7. Your new distribution list will now be created and added to your list of contacts.

Fig 6. Illustration of new contact group
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Sending emails to your distribution list

1. Sending emails to your distribution list is the same as sending emails to any other members in your contact list. You can access your Address Book from a new message window by clicking on the To... button.

Fig 7. Location of To... button
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2. Select Contacts from your address book to search your local contact list.

Fig 8. Contacts option in Address Book

3. You can find your distribution list from here.

Fig 9. Search results window
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Related guides and other info:

• Search the Global Address List (GAL)
• Create a new contact
• Find a contact
• Delete a contact
• About distribution lists

Help and support

• Contact the IT Services.

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