Create distribution list in Outlook from Excel spreadsheet?

Followup questions related to Bruce's original question. Context is
maintaining organizational (Org) member email information for use in
broadcast emails to members. The info currently lives in Excel.

1) Can an Outllook DL created directly, either by the copy-paste procedure
you suggest or by keying email addresses directly in the DL's Members list,
rather than created by selecting already-existing Outllook contacts, be
exported to a file for use by other people? If so, how? In my tries so far,
such exported files (in Excel or CSV format) have omitted all distribution
lists.

2) Can I import address/contact data from Excel (or CSV file) into a
separately-named Outlook address/contacts folder rather than to the general
Contacts folder? If so, how? Outlook doesn't seem to allow selecting a
particular destination contacts folder for imported data.

3) Considering that Outlook does allow opening a .pst file with
address/contacts data into a separately named contacts folder, can the
current Excel file be converted into a .pst file either directly or via an
intermediate CSV file? If so, how?

Thanks for all help.

"Brian Tillman" wrote:

> Bruce <Bruce.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > What I want to do is generate a distribution list in Outlook without
> > having to start from scratch and select each name in the Address
> > Book. Can this be done?
>
> If you have a semicolon-separated list of addresses in a text file, you can
> open a new DL, click "Select Members", then open the address list file and
> copy-and-paste the list into the Members field in the address book window.
> Click OK and they'll be added to the DL. I've done it so I know it works.
> It may also work with a comma-separated list, but I haven't tried that.
> --
> Brian Tillman
>
>

d.deane(nospam)@comcast.net
<ddeanenospamcomcastnet.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> 1) Can an Outllook DL created directly, either by the copy-paste
> procedure you suggest or by keying email addresses directly in the
> DL's Members list, rather than created by selecting already-existing
> Outllook contacts, be exported to a file for use by other people? If
> so, how? In my tries so far, such exported files (in Excel or CSV
> format) have omitted all distribution lists.

ARe these other people also using Exchange? If so, of course. If not, then
you can export it as a text file with will look like this:

Distribution List Name: yourlistname

Members:

member one address
member two address
member three address

with a tab between the member name and the address.
--
Brian Tillman
>
> 2) Can I import address/contact data from Excel (or CSV file) into a
> separately-named Outlook address/contacts folder rather than to the
> general Contacts folder? If so, how? Outlook doesn't seem to allow
> selecting a particular destination contacts folder for imported data.
>
> 3) Considering that Outlook does allow opening a .pst file with
> address/contacts data into a separately named contacts folder, can the
> current Excel file be converted into a .pst file either directly or
> via an intermediate CSV file? If so, how?
>
> Thanks for all help.
>
> "Brian Tillman" wrote:
>
>> Bruce <Bruce.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What I want to do is generate a distribution list in Outlook without
>>> having to start from scratch and select each name in the Address
>>> Book. Can this be done?
>>
>> If you have a semicolon-separated list of addresses in a text file,
>> you can open a new DL, click "Select Members", then open the address
>> list file and copy-and-paste the list into the Members field in the
>> address book window. Click OK and they'll be added to the DL. I've
>> done it so I know it works. It may also work with a comma-separated
>> list, but I haven't tried that. --
>> Brian Tillman

Brian:
Re (1):
-- Not using Exchange.
-- HOW do I export the DL to a text file, considering that past text files
from Outlook's export process have omitted all DLs? And if DL export can
work, how can I select a particular Outlook address/contact folder to export
from rather than exporting all address/contact info from Outlook?

Re (2) & (3): Any chance of answers to these?

Thanks,

"Brian Tillman" wrote:

> d.deane(nospam)@comcast.net
> <ddeanenospamcomcastnet.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > 1) Can an Outllook DL created directly, either by the copy-paste
> > procedure you suggest or by keying email addresses directly in the
> > DL's Members list, rather than created by selecting already-existing
> > Outllook contacts, be exported to a file for use by other people? If
> > so, how? In my tries so far, such exported files (in Excel or CSV
> > format) have omitted all distribution lists.
>
> ARe these other people also using Exchange? If so, of course. If not, then
> you can export it as a text file with will look like this:
>
> Distribution List Name: yourlistname
>
> Members:
>
> member one address
> member two address
> member three address
>
> with a tab between the member name and the address.
> --
> Brian Tillman
> >
> > 2) Can I import address/contact data from Excel (or CSV file) into a
> > separately-named Outlook address/contacts folder rather than to the
> > general Contacts folder? If so, how? Outlook doesn't seem to allow
> > selecting a particular destination contacts folder for imported data.
> >
> > 3) Considering that Outlook does allow opening a .pst file with
> > address/contacts data into a separately named contacts folder, can the
> > current Excel file be converted into a .pst file either directly or
> > via an intermediate CSV file? If so, how?
> >
> > Thanks for all help.
> >
> > "Brian Tillman" wrote:
> >
> >> Bruce <Bruce.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> What I want to do is generate a distribution list in Outlook without
> >>> having to start from scratch and select each name in the Address
> >>> Book. Can this be done?
> >>
> >> If you have a semicolon-separated list of addresses in a text file,
> >> you can open a new DL, click "Select Members", then open the address
> >> list file and copy-and-paste the list into the Members field in the
> >> address book window. Click OK and they'll be added to the DL. I've
> >> done it so I know it works. It may also work with a comma-separated
> >> list, but I haven't tried that. --
> >> Brian Tillman
>
>
>

d.deane(nospam)@comcast.net
<ddeanenospamcomcastnet.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> -- HOW do I export the DL to a text file, considering that past text
> files from Outlook's export process have omitted all DLs?

Open the DL and and choose FIle>Save As.

> Re (2) & (3): Any chance of answers to these?

> 2) Can I import address/contact data from Excel (or CSV file) into a
> separately-named Outlook address/contacts folder rather than to the
> general
> Contacts folder?

Yes.

> If so, how? Outlook doesn't seem to allow selecting a
> particular destination contacts folder for imported data.

File>Import and Export>Import from another program or file>Comma Separated
Value (Windows)>Next. Browse to the CSV, select it, click OK, select the
duplicate handling you want, and click OK. Select the folder into which you
want to import it and click Finish. Works for me.

> 3) Considering that Outlook does allow opening a .pst file with
> address/contacts data into a separately named contacts folder, can the
> current Excel file be converted into a .pst file either directly or via an
> intermediate CSV file? If so, how?

You cannot convert a CSV file or a spreadsheet into a PST. You must import
into Outlook.
--
Brian Tillman

I created a DL however received a message saying that I used up too much
memory for the list to be created and saved. It wasn't clear on how many
names I had to take off. So I saved the file as a 'rich text format' thinking
I would be able to cut some names off the list and import them back into a DL
then paste the other names and do the same thing.
I tried File>Import export, however I was unable to find what I wanted. Is
there anyway I can import these names from a rich text document into a
distribution list?

VMfromWI <VMfromWI.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I created a DL however received a message saying that I used up too
> much memory for the list to be created and saved. It wasn't clear on
> how many names I had to take off. So I saved the file as a 'rich text
> format' thinking I would be able to cut some names off the list and
> import them back into a DL then paste the other names and do the same
> thing.
> I tried File>Import export, however I was unable to find what I
> wanted. Is there anyway I can import these names from a rich text
> document into a distribution list?

Open the new DL and click Select Members. Open the text file (which should
have two columns, one for name and one for address). Select the rows in the
text file, click Copy. Put your pointer in the Members field of the Select
Members dialogus and press Ctrl-V or right-click>Paste.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]