Grouping Contacts

When we have several contacts who share the same interest, we can group them.
We can do this for all the members from the bridge club, or for all representatives of a certain company. It is possible to group almost everything.
We will first open the “Contact” dialog and double-click on the person in the Contacts list.

We click on the “Contacts …” in the lower left corner of the dialog.
The “Select Contacts” dialog opens.
We can select the various contacts that we want to include in the group, and click OK.
To include multiple adjacent individuals, we hold the shift key pressed, and for selecting multiple non-adjacent individuals we hold the Ctrl key pressed.
We have already seen this in an earlier lesson.

When you’re done, click OK.
This brings up the “Contact” dialog box.
At the bottom of the dialog, we now see all the contacts connected with this person appear.

In the “activities” tab all our grouped contacts appear.

But we can also group several contacts to email all at one time.
This is called a “Distribution List”.
This is useful when we have to send the same email to several people, we only need to select the group instead of sending the email one by one.

To create a distribution list choose “File” – “New” – “Distribution List” in the menu bar.
This opens the “Distribution List” dialog:

First we give a name for our group at the top of the window.
Then we click the “Select Members” button.
We select the names that we want to add and click on the “Members->”

When the names you wanted are added, click OK.

result:

Click “Save and Close” if you want to save the group.
You see the group, you just created, in the Buddy List.
If you want to send an e-mail to this group anytime in the future, choose “New” – “E-mail” in the menu bar.
In the mail message window, click the “To …” button.
The “Select Names” dialog opens.
Select the folder you just created and click the “Done” button.

Click OK when you are satisfied.
Enter your subject in the e-mail, and of course the accompanying text.
And click “Send”.

In Outlook we can organize contacts into different categories.
It will help us when we have hundreds of contacts in our list, and we have to find a particular individual.
To do this we open the “Contact” dialog for the person we want to organize in a category, by double clicking on the name in the list.
At the botton right of the “Contact” window, we have the “Categories”.
When we click it, it opens the “Categories” dialog:

We can choose a category from the available list, or we can also create a new category. Just type the name in the box at the top, and click the Add button.
You will see that the category is added to the list, and will also be selected immediately.
Click OK when you are satisfied.

If you want to delete a category, click the “Master Category List”, select the category and click “Remove”.
A category assigned to one person, cannot be removed.

If you wish that the information of a contact, be seen only by you, check the box marked “Private” in the “Contact” dialog box.

Search for Contacts

When we have hundreds of contacts in our list, it can be difficult to find a specific person.
We can use the “Search” function to make it quicker.
To find a contact, we give a name in the “Search for” box and we choose Contacts in the drop-down list under “Search”.
And click the “Search Now” button.

If this toolbar is not visible , click the button on standard toolbar.

Writing letters to Contacts

To make use of this property, we need an e-mail address of the contact, and we must have Microsoft Word installed on our computer.
If we have all of this, then it is a piece of cake to accomplish this.
Open the Contacts folder, and select the person you want to write a letter to.
Then choose “Actions” – “New Letter to Contact” in the menu bar.
Go through the 4 steps in the “Letter Wizard” and click finish.
Outlook has the address already filled in the letter for you.
Finish your letter, save it and close Microsoft Word.

Call contacts

In order to make use of this property,our PC should be connected to a telephone line.
If you have this, you can select the contact from the list and choose “Actions” – “Call Contact” in the menu bar.
A submenu appears, listing different numbers of the person you call.
Pick a number, and the “New Call” dialog appears.
Click the “Dial” button and the connection is made.

Find contact address.

To use this feature, our PC must be connected to the Internet.
Double-click the address of the person you want to see on a map.
This opens the “Contact” dialog.
Select “Actions” – “Display Map of Address” in the menu bar.

If all goes well you would see the road map of your address in the browser window.

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