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2431
In Outlook, how can I forward a message to a contact group (distribution list) in my Contacts?


First, you need to make the contacts folder (containing the contact group) visible in the list of address books when forwarding.  Your personal contacts may not be visible at first in the forwarding dialogue.

Suppose - for the sake of example - you have a contacts folder called family, within which there is a contact group called siblings containing the email addresses of your brothers and sisters.

  1. Right-click on the family contact list and choose Properties from the drop-down menu.
  2. Click on the Outlook Address Book tab within the Properties dialogue box.
  3. Tick the box labelled Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book, then click OK.
  4. Now, back in your Mail, start a forwarding dialogue for the message you want to forward.
  5. Click the To... button so as to open an address book dialogue (it should show the Global Address List to start with).
  6. At the top, in the Address Book menu box, click on the chooser arrow and then you should see family (amongst others) listed. Click on family.
  7. The contents of the family contact list should now be listed, amongst which should be siblings.
  8. Click to select siblings, then click on the To -> button at the bottom, whereupon siblings should appear in the box alongside. Click OK.
  9. You should now see siblings in the To box above your message to be forwarded. You should see a '+' sign alongside the name; if you click this it will expand it to show all the addresses of the siblings group, but there is no actual need to do this.
  10. Now you can edit and send the message as required.

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Created by Andy Clews on 9 January 2012 and last updated by Richard Byrom-Colburn on 21 October 2016