In Microsoft Outlook, how can I send someone a contact or distribution list?

You can send a distribution list to others by including it in a message. The recipients can then save it to their Contacts. Follow the appropriate steps below for your version of Outlook.

Note: To send a distribution list that contains members from your organization's Global Address List (GAL), be sure that the person you're sending the list to also uses that same GAL; see At IU, what is the Global Address List?

Outlook 2010 and 2007

1. Open a new message.
   
   
2. In the main Outlook window, open Contacts.
   
   
3. Drag the distribution list from Contacts into the message body.
   
   
4. Send the message.

Earlier versions of Outlook

The steps below will work only if Outlook is set to not use Word as the email editor. To check this setting:

1. In Outlook, from the Tools menu, select Options.
   
   
2. Select the Mail Format tab.
   
   
3. Make sure Use Word to edit e-mail messages is not checked.

   Note: The wording for the checkbox may vary depending on which version of Outlook you're using.

4. Click Apply and then OK.

To attach a contact or personal distribution list from your Contacts folder to an outgoing email message in Outlook:

1. Open a new message, and from the Insert menu, select Item... .
   
   
2. In the Insert Item window, from the "Look in:" section, select Contacts. From the "Items:" list in the lower half of the window, locate the contact or distribution list you want to attach to your message.
   
   
3. Click the contact or distribution list once. In the upper right section of the Insert Item window, make sure Attachment is selected, and then click OK.

This will attach a copy of that contact or distribution list to the message.

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