Create contact groups (mailing lists)

A contact group is a collection of contacts that simplifies the process of sending e‑mail to groups of people. By addressing a message to a contact group, you save time by not having to add an address to the message for each recipient. You can send the message to everyone in the contact group at once.

When using contact groups, keep in mind that they do not hide the e‑mail addresses of the recipients. When you send a message to a contact group, all the recipients will be able to see the names and e‑mail addresses of the other recipients.

Contact groups are designed to be used with Windows Mail, and are sometimes called mailing lists.

1. Open Windows Contacts.

2. On the toolbar, click New Contact Group, type a name in the Group Name box, and then fill in the boxes on the Contact Group tab and Contact Group Details tab. You don't have to fill in all the boxes; just type as much information as you want about the new contact group you are creating.

3. Add contacts to the contact group in any of the following ways:

To add individual contacts to the group from your existing contacts, click Add to Contact Group.
To create new contacts and add them to the contact group, click New Contact.
To add new people to the contact group without also adding them to your individual contacts, type the appropriate information in the Contact Name and E‑mail boxes, and then click Add.

Tip

You can send an e‑mail message to a contact group using Windows Mail. To do this, open Windows Contacts, right-click a contact group, point to Action, and then click Send e‑mail. This will open a new e‑mail message in Windows Mail addressed to all the members of that contact group.