Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps. A guide to iLife '05, .Mac, and more.

2017-07-07 02:10:07

You can make a Group in the Address Book, which not only helps organize your address list, but also acts as a mailing list; that is, you can send an email message to the Group name and the one message will go to everyone in that list. You can put the same contact name in more than one list.

To make a Group mailing list

In the Address Book, make sure you see all three columns, as shown below, right. (If you only see one panel, the "Card" panel, click the "View Card and Column" button, shown below-left.)

Under the Group column, click the + sign. A "Group Name" appears in the Group column, selected and ready for you to type a new name, as shown below. Just type to replace the selected name. When done, hit the Enter key. (If the "Group Name" deselects itself because you waited too long, just double-click it and you can rename it.)

Now you can do one of two things: Either in the "Name" column, click the + sign and add a new address; this new address will be added to your "All" Group and to the new Group that you just made (which is still selected, right?).

Or click the "All" Group so you see all of the addresses in your book. Then drag an existing address and drop it on the Group name, as shown below.

"All" contains the name of every person in every Group, as well as those who are in no Group at all. Each Group actually contains "aliases" to the one address card.
Mary Ellen is now in the "All" list, as well as in the "SFFAI" Group. You can put the same person in any number of Groups.

Shortcut to make a Group

Here's an even faster way to make a Group:

1.	Hold down the Command key and click on all the names in the list that you want to put into a new Group.
2.	Let go of the Command key.
3.	Go to the File menu, and choose "New Group From Selection."
4.	Change the name of the Group, as shown on the opposite page.

Delete a contact name from a Group

First select the Group name, then select the contact name and hit the Delete key. When you delete a Name from a Group, it is not deleted from the "All" list. You will be asked to confirm your action.

Send email to an entire Group

Once you've made a Group mailing list, you can send a message to everyone in that list simply by sending the email to the Group name.

To send an email message simultaneously to every person in a Group

1.	You don't have to have the Address Book open. In Mail, start a new email message.
2.	In the "To" box, type the name of the Group.

That's allwrite your letter, send it, and it will go to everyone in the Group.

If you see a list of all the individual names of the Group instead of the Group name, see below.

Suppress the address list when sending mail to a Group

It's polite to suppress the address list when sending to a Group. For one thing, it's really annoying to have to scroll through a long list of addresses to get to the message. For another, some people don't want their private email address broadcast to everyone else on the list.

To suppress the Group list of addresses

1.	In the Mail program (not the Address Book), open the Mail preferences (go to the Mail menu and choose "Preferences…").
2.	Click the "Composing" icon in the Toolbar.
3.	UNcheck the box (if it's checked), "When sending to a group, show all member addresses."
4.	Put the Preferences away (click its red Close button).