There is no easy way to maintain "distribution lists" of students in Outlook Express (too many to keep track of, and the names/addresses change each term) - but you can "group" together constant addresses (like faculty) with GROUPS in Outlook Express. [This is the "voice" I'm going to use .. faculty creating other groups of faculty - obviously this could be modified to be "groups of friends", etc.]
You might want to look at this page (Sharing contacts via the address book) eventually, but first, we have to put the contacts into the address book!
Step 1) Exporting your names/emails from Excel.
Info stored in Excel - Let's assume you have an EXCEL sheet with the email addresses and other information (like names) in columns. Make sure there is a header on the top of each column that describes the column (one word titles will be best, but there will be more information below). Then the columns contain that sort of information (email address, first name, last name, etc.). Save this out as a CSV (comma separated values) file:
Note: After you save as CSV - Excel might ask you to save the file again (since it doesn't recognize "CSV" as been a "proper excel format") - you could save it as an Excel file, for example if you need to make changes later.
Step 2) Importing that new info to your Address Book in Outlook Express.
Step 3) How will the columns be "mapped" into the OE address book? Well, you can choose how they should be mapped. If you used the same column names as OE (more info below) - then OE will automatically map you to the assumed names. If it is not sure, it will give a dialog box that asks you how you want to change the mapping. (Or you can choose to change the mapping yourself if you want).
Step 4) You should now have all those new contacts loaded! (Once you click FINISH on the CVS Import dialog.)
What if there are duplicate contacts? ... It appears that Outlook Express is relatively smart .. it assumes that the contacts you already have should count more than similar ones that might be imported .. thus if the contact already exists, OE doesn't import that particular duplicate. [Note, if the names are slightly different, you might get a "new" contact.] But, it seems to realize that the "group identity" should change .. thus we can use this to "update" the groups (for example, each term, the particular teachers in the "Physics 1 Lab Instructors" group would be different ... a new file could be passed around, imported, and the new makeup of the group would be updated. At least, that's the way it seems to work!
Step 5) [Optional]What if you are unsure of creating the excel list ... can I have OE help me out? Yes, you can - you could have OE save out a copy of YOUR current address book (in the excel format) and then you would be able to see where the correct columns are (and what their names are). You can even delete the columns you don't care about to leave only the ones you need (and then, since this is you old addresses, replace the rows with your new data, and then follow the steps to import it. Here are the steps to export your OE into the right format:
To make sure you get "all" the columns - you could select all of them in the "fields you wish to export" (it couldn't hurt!)
Then once you have that CSV file .. go find it in the Windows Explorer - double click on it and Excel will open. Delete the columns you don't need - replace the current info with your new info, and then go back to the top of the page to import it again (it will NOT overwrite your existing info, just add to it!).
[If you just want to learn how to make groups in Outlook Express ... download this file (tip sheet in Acrobat 5.0 PDF format).]
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Last Updated = Friday, 03-Feb-2006 22:34:09 EST Of the 50 people that have visited this site, you are the most recent.