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I need to post a serial how-to in Outlook for some of my clients. This one is part of “how to create email distribute list” and copy & paste from this website.

If you have e-mail addresses or other contact information in a program and want to import the data into Microsoft Outlook, follow the steps below.

Export and Convert the Data

Use the program’s export or save as feature to save the data into a “Comma Separated Value (.cvs) file to enable it to be imported to the Outlook Contact list.

1. Open the .csv file with Microsoft Excel or another program to prepare the data for export.

2. The open file should be similar to the image shown below.
   

3. To successfully import these addresses over to Outlook proper labels must be assigned to the enteries in the Excel file. Insert a row above the current list of entries. Name the three column headings as Nick Name, Full Name and E-mail Address appropriately.

4. The Excel file should look like the image shown below.
   

5. Save the Excel spreadsheet as a ” Comma Separated Value ” file with a .csv extension on to your Desktop.
6. Click Yes if prompted to retain the format of the Excel file and then close the Excel program.

Import the file

You can add the addresses from Excel file you saved into your Outlook contacts folder. This cannot be done in the Outlook on the Web (OWA) environment. So you must configure an Outlook client to move the address over to Outlook. To do so follow the steps given below:

1. Open Outlook and select the Import and Export option from the File menu.

2. From the Import and Export Wizard, select the Import from another program or file option.Click Next.
   

3. For the Select file type to import from option, choose Comma Seperated Values.Click Next.
   
4. To select the file to import to Outlook, browse to the Excel file that you had saved on the Desktop. Click Next.
   

5. Select Contacts as the destination folder and then click Next.

6. Click Map Custom Fields to map the fields from the old address book to the Contacts folder.

7. Drag the Full Name value from the .csv file to the Name field on the right. Simialrly drag E-mail Address value to the E-mail field. Click OK to continue.

8. Click Finish to initiate the transfer of addresses from the old address book to the Contact list in Outlook.

9. All the addresses should now show up in the Contacts list.
10. In case of a Distribution List, the email addresses of the individuals on the list MUST be first added as Contacts in Outlook. A new Distribution list must then be created by adding those individuals from the Contacts List