adding list to a distribution list (03 SP1)

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I have a list of Email addresses. Is it possible to add them to a Distribution list in the Outlook Email address book without adding them one by one through the “Add New Member” dialog box?

Also, when one adds a new member using the “Add new member” dialog box there is an option to “add to contacts”. If one does not select that option is there any way to do so later?

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1. If you can get the email address list into Excel you can use Hans’ code in post 565727. Otherwise, can you tell us more about the list format?
2. Not without VBA. I don’t think anyone has posted code in the Lounge to do it, it would not be difficult, just loop through the ContactItem members and create a Contact for each one, populate the Contact Name, FileAs, and Email1address fields, Save the Contact record.

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Sorry John, I have been distracted by other issues and lost track of this. The list I refer to is a list of Email addresses that came in on an Email that was adressed to 30 or more people.

I can take a list of addresses from an Excel database, paste the column into word, convert the table to text and replace the paragraphmarks with semicolons. I can then paste that list of addresses into a message. But I can’t figure a way to paste it into the distribution list of the Outlook Adress Book. As far as I can tell one must add each address one at a time.

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Yes, manually you can only do it one at a time. Using VBA code as mentioned above, you could get them all in in one code run.

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OK since Outlook is so clunky, maybe there is another way to approach this.
Is there some other “contact software” that is compatible with outlook? Could I use another contact adress book, and use it to address messages in outlook. If so can I convert my outlook address book contents into the new address book software.

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Edited by HansV to restore attachment that was lost in the server crash of August, 2007 (thanks to JohnBF)

Marc, your original question was about creating a Distribution List from a list in a message which you converted to Excel. You were already pointed to VBA code that will do this. I don’t know of third party tools, you could look at the tools in http://www.slipstick.com[/url%5D and http://www.mapilabs.com[/url%5D and see if there is something.

I agree that it’s an annoyance that Outlook doesn’t provide the ability via Menu options to add more than one e-mail address at a time to Contacts or to a Distribution List, but I don’t understand why the suggested solution isn’t acceptable.

One last suggestion I can offer is that if you are able to get your list into the To: fields of a message, save it as a draft without sending it, and then reopen the message, click on each name and add it to the contacts list. Or using the same technique of creating a saved draft, open the draft and then run the VBA code in the attached file.

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I’m sorry John. I should have explained. I am not very familiar with Visual Basic. I used to know Word Basic pretty well. But after MS changed to Visual Basic I did not keep up. I am not really sure how to use your code. Maybe it is time for me to revisit Visual Basic and learn how to use Macro’s in Word and Excel again.
Have you a suggestion on a good resource to get me started. I’m not a complete lamer. I learned to program in Fortran Four using Hollerith cards and batch card readers. After we loaded a program we got chased around SF State by the Tac squad while we waited overnight to see if it compiled. You are probably too young to know what a Hollerith card is.

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See post 398131 for using macros – since either my attachment or Hans code is already written, it shouldn’t be a hassle to copy code in, but let me know if it doesn’t run, since any errors in my posts will be my errors.

>You are probably too young to know what a Hollerith card is

Unfortunately not, but I didn’t get into any kind of programming until I was close to the top of the hill. Now I’m over it and gathering speed on the way down.

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Any suggestions for a resource to get me up to speed with VBA.

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For Outlook VBA see the suggestions in the second para of post 586029.

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