Category Archives: Contacts/Groups

Sharing distribution lists with others

Posted by on May 30th, 2012
Leave a reply

Question: Someone emailed me a group (distribution list) and now I would like to send an email to that group. Is there an easy way to convert it to my contacts?

Answer: It is definitely simple from the Outlook client. The quickest and easiest way is to click on that email message and from the reading pane, drag the group (which appears as an attachment) to your contacts folder. You may need to rename it to something more appropriate. Do this by opening it – double clicking on the group from your Contacts folder and type in a different name and save and close. 

If you’re using Outlook Web Access, you can open the attachment and click the icon “New Message to Group” and it will prompt you to save, which will save it in your contacts.

Question of the week – Sort order of contacts in Address book

Posted by on April 25th, 2012
Leave a reply

Question: When sending an email and searching my contacts, it would be helpful if they were sorted in lastname, firstname order like the Global Address book, rather than firstname, lastname. Is there a way to change that?

Answer: After doing some seaching, we found it! You have to go to your Account Settings options (2010 it is under File > Account Settings> Account Settings; in 2007 you find it under Tools > Account Settings) and click the Address Books tab and click Change. Click the Outlook address book and click Contacts (you can do this with Suggested “recent” Contacts too), and then change the “Show names by” to File as (Smith, John) and click Close.  Be sure to exit Outlook and re-start Outlook before trying it to see if that worked.

Here is the Microsoft article with instructions: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/display-the-contacts-list-in-last-name-first-name-format-HA010355556.aspx

Distribution Lists (Outlook Groups)

Posted by on March 29th, 2012
Leave a reply

I have some very large personal distribution lists in Lotus Notes and would prefer not to have to re-create them. Is it possible?

There is a way you can copy names from a personal distribution list. It will require that you send a message to that group from Lotus Notes, and include your name in the address list or cc or bcc section.

  1. Open Lotus Notes and place the group name in an email TO section 
  2. Enter your email address (userid@unmc.edu) in one of the address sections (bcc preferably)
  3. Type your note and send it.
  4. The note will be sent to Outlook and when you receive it, you will see all of the names in the TO section shown in the unmc.edu format. (You may also see some undeliverables or out of office replies)
  5. In order to copy those names, you must Forward or reply to all (but don’t send a message). Click and drag over the names and press Ctrl C to copy.
  6. Click on your Contacts view and select New > Distribution list (2007) or New Contact Group (2010). Give the group a name and click Select Members (2007) or Add members (2010) > From address list.
  7. In the area at the bottom of the screen (Members field), paste (Ctrl V) to add those names to your list.
  8. If there is a problem with any of the names, a screen may pop up and you will need to delete that name from the list. Otherwise, click OK and the group will be created.
  9. NOTE: Outlook has a limit of around 100 names. You cannot click and drag over the names in a group to separate them into smaller groups. You just have to delete names. So you may want to click and drag the group to your desktop a few times and rename the group 1, 2, 3 (to place them in smaller groups) and then delete the extra names.
  10. You can then next subgroups into another group, such as Big Group and then include the subgroups (SmallGroup1; SmallGroup2; SmallGroup3, etc) Unfortunately, nesting does not appear to work if there are over 125 names total. So you will need to send separate messages out to each subgroup.

 

NOTE: This procedure does not work for Public Groups.

 

Copy Lotus Notes Groups into Outlook Groups

Posted by on March 11th, 2012
Leave a reply

Question: I have very large groups in Lotus Notes. I hate to have to re-create them all in Outlook. Is there an easy way to move those to Outlook?

Answer: If those names in Notes groups are internet addresses, you can copy the contents from Notes into Outlook groups. If they contain names in the Lotus Notes format (first lastname/dept/unmc/unebr) they will not work in Outlook.

  1. So, I would only select those names in the group that are in internet format (using control key or shift key to select) and then copy (Press Ctrl C).
  2. In Outlook, select the contact view and click New Contact Group (or distribution list in Outlook 2007). Give the group a name and click Add Members. In the field at the bottom of the screen, paste (Ctrl V) the names you copied from Lotus Notes. Outlook will give an error if the address is not acceptable. Otherwise acceptable addresses will be underlined.
  3. Your group was quickly created!

NOTE: This procedure works only with personal groups, not public groups. In addition, you are limited to around 100 (not 150) names in one group. You can, however, nest groups. Each group would count as 1 name. For example, you could have a master group called Faculty, which contains smaller groups such as FacultyA-F; FacultyG-L; FacultyM-R; FacultyS-Z. Just make sure each group contains less than 150 names.

Remember, you can also send mail from Lotus Notes and messages will automatically be routed to Outlook. So if your Notes groups contain the name/dept/unmc/unebr format, you can continue sending from Lotus Notes until June giving you more time to re-create your groups.